HUMANS SHOULD NOT DISRUPT NATURAL ORDER

NEW DELHI: Citizens should perhaps stop disrupting the natural order of creatures preying on each other — a bird on another bird, a cat on a cute mouse.

Here’s why: in our concretised cities, there’s a pyramid of nature that we need to respect. It isn’t our place to launch rescue operations; it is not heroic or compassionate either, unless the ones being protected are assets like livestock or pets.

One could even extend compassion by offering birds water, avoiding stepping on ants, putting up bird houses, tending to injured animals or rescuing them from drowning or getting injured.

These actions are different from intervening in the natural order of things as they acknowledge both the brutality of Indian cities to nature and the fact that natural habitats have been destroyed by urbanisation.

The reason we play God is that we cast aside the natural order and impose on it a liberal, anthropocentric, or humancentric perspective. Isn’t this a form of colonialism? It might make us feel virtuous, but who are we to disrupt the natural order of things?

If we want to rescue animals, we could focus on Kerala and Nagaland, where thousands of have turned homeless after the floods, for which we should take moral responsibility. In our everyday lives, though, we must know where to draw the line.