“Please, give us nothing but only a tiger if you can
if not a leopard,” was an appeal of a peasant from a remote hamlet of Bhutan to
his visiting MP.
That MP was quite taken aback by such an unusual
appeal. At one point, the MP thought that the man was insane and wanted to
laugh but nobody was laughing in the gathering. The MP went dumb founded when
the whole people of the hamlet unanimously repeated the appeal. “As of now we
need no developments in any area but just a tiger if not a leopard by any means
please,” pleaded the people in unison.
Stupefied MP, for a while did not know what to do or
say. Hesitantly the MP began to speak after clearing his throat although it was
already clear. “What actually you people mean by mentioning tiger or a
leopard?”
After a deep sigh, an elderly man began to speak,
“It is a very long and a sad story to narrate sir.”
“Once many years ago, the village was beautiful,
peaceful, and prosperous. People were happy and the harvest every year was
bountiful. The domestic animals were
many and helped the village people in many respect.
Bordering the village was a deep and beautiful
jungle were many wild animals roamed happily. There was peace in the village
and harmony in the jungle.
One fateful day a young man returned home from town
with a monster machine called Power Chain. People gathered around the machine
and asked the owner a string of questions. The man, for fun ignited the engine,
which sent all the people running halter skater in terror. The man had a hearty
laugh, called his village folk back after stopping the engine, and explained
how it worked and what it did.
Soon people fell in love with the machine and began
cutting down the great old trees in the jungle to construct their traditional
house.
We never realized what we were doing until one day a
teacher came to the village to educate our children.
The teacher was very worried by the way we exploited
the jungle. The teacher told us that we have encroached upon the home of the
wild. But we gave no heed and went on destroying the jungle.
One day a tiger came right into the middle of our
village and killed the biggest bull. The people were so infuriated that they
poisoned the tiger and celebrated the death of the big cat.
Soon the village began to face the leopards. The villagers
killed the last one, a year ago in a trap.
Since then we are not in peace. We have to guard
their crops day and night. Despite all the earnest efforts, we lost all our
crops to the wild animals.
The human wild life conflict was so severe that we
cursed our fate and resorted to so many prayers and rituals but to no avail.
During one of the teacher-parents meetings, the
teacher of the village solved the puzzle we were faced with.
He explained that we have destroyed the home of the
animals and slowly the animals went away or died. The tigers and leopards
attacked the domestic animals because there was no food for them in the jungle.
Killing the cats was the greatest mistake pointed out by the teacher. This
according to the teacher had created an imbalance in the food chain.
The wild boar, deer, and monkey’s population
dramatically increased hence the crop loss. There were no animals that could
hunt and control the population of the boars and deer.”
The teacher opened the eyes of the villagers and
they revered the teacher more than they revered their chief monk in the
village. All the people realized their follies very well after the teacher
explained how the nature worked.
The teacher talked about this predicament faced by
the people while he was talking about one of the pillars of the Gross National
Happiness: Conservation and Preservation of natural environment. Citing the
real problems faced by the villagers the teacher highlighted the importance of
preserving and conserving our natural environment.
After listening to the story, the MP was agitated
and at the same time impressed with the wisdom of the teacher.
Stroking his chin the Mp began to speak, “I fully
understand your troubles and shall surely look into your problems and inform
you what has to be done as soon as possible.”
The PM was never to be seen in the village again.
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