Just yesterday, I saw an appeal of a few concerned
environmentalists posted on the Face Book. It was on the issue of lack of
ethical behaviour among wildlife photographers. This column written and
published in February 2012, was a reaction of such behaviour by wildlife
guides, enthusiasts and all. I ventured to relate it to the concepts of ‘The
law of the jungle’ and the ‘The rule of law’. Noting that the negatives we observe
in our wildlife parks and other protected areas to be a reflection of the ways of
our society in general, the column is an appeal to saner minds to further
reflect, discuss and venture to set in place the implementation of the rule of
law all around, without limiting it to forum
discussions, protest marches and to pointing fingers.
Some creative works have a timeless impact on us. They are
so basic in identifying what’s right and wrong in our midst, its value in
enabling us to understand who we are and what we are will always provide us
with good food for thought. One such work is Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 work, ‘The
Jungle Book’. ‘Talking’ animals of the
Indian jungles, a child adopted by wolves, their ways good and bad, techniques
they use for survival, the moral lessons
and political satire makes Kipling’s work not only a good read (good viewing
too as film and cartoon) but serve as lessons to learn from, any time and every
time we humans face crises.
The same must be said of ‘Vana Katha’ authored by my
university’s chancellor in the sixties. We affectionately nicknamed him ‘Yaka’,
shortened from Yakkaduwe Pagnarama Hamuduruwo. Influenced by Kipling, he made
‘Vana Katha’ a lovely localised version of the animal world’s travails and
doings, more as a sharp presentation of moral lessons for us humans.
"Now
this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky;
And the
wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it, must
die.
As the
creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back;
For the
strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the
Pack" is how Kipling laid that law.
The recent photographs we saw of the cluster of ‘Jeeps’ rushing
towards a leopard sited at Yala at breakneck speeds, told us a sad and shocking
tale of our greed, uncaring ways and the scant disregard of the ‘rule of law’
that should prevail within that national park environment. This is not only
seen at Yala but also at Uda Walawa, Minneriya during the gathering and more
recently on whale and dolphin watching tours in the ocean, where the pull of the greed for the dollar or
the rupee seem to make most behave like animals themselves. Protected areas and
parks were established by us humans to ensure that the ‘packs’ of animals in
the wild are shielded from human wolves and allowed to thrive in their natural environment,
without placing undue pressure on them.
At the back of all of this of course, is the ‘value’ the
wild and its life bring to us as shared show-pieces and exhibits. Our tourism
thrives on showing off our wildlife and the dollars and rupees therein go to
make the impressive statistics of arrivals and earnings of foreign exchange and
collections at the gates of the parks. Yet, there is little that is done to
ensure that there is true protection for the animals within the parks.
We hear of underpaid trackers being employed as perpetual ‘volunteers’,
deafness of policy makers and officials in addressing issues such as
non-remittance of revenues from the gate back for maintenance of the parks, of
bad park management practises, flouting of existing rules and regulation for
managing over-visitation, exceeding carrying capacities in the use of vehicles
entering the parks and shielding of wrong doing through political influence and
patronage.
Sadly we also learn of the sheer apathy shown by tourism and
environmental authorities who indeed should take on strong guardianship roles
in safeguarding resources that support their own existence. They seem to take
the easy way out of palming off responsibility to the officials of the Wildlife
Department with an occasional letter written to express concern or a workshop
held to discuss it. Records of these go into office files, to later serve to
cover their own backs.
‘Let not the law of the jungle prevail’ is a saying usually used
to describe unruliness and disorder. Yet, there is more to it and that denotes
power. Power not only of the might and brute strength of the individual, where every
person will act for himself in an environment where anything goes and survival
of the strongest and the fittest will be the outcome, much like the various
crises we see created in our midst on the global front as well. Kipling
recognises the value of not only being a strong wolf, but also of the strength
of being one with the pack, epitomising the role of a strong leader in
protecting the community and/or society that he/she belongs to.
In the
‘Jungle Book’, the Law of the Jungle, which by far is the oldest law in the
world—has with its code made as perfect as time and custom can make it,
designed to meet any imminent danger that may befall the ‘Jungle People’. Kipling
had, ‘Mowgli’, the boy raised with cub wolves and spent a great part of his
life in the Seeonee Wolf-Pack, learning the Law from ‘Baloo’, the Brown Bear. It
was Baloo who told him, when the boy grew impatient at the constant orders he
had to obey, that the Law was like the giant creeper, because it dropped across
every one's back and no one could escape. "When thou hast lived as long as
I have, little brother, thou wilt see how all the Jungle obeys at least one
Law. And that will be no pleasant sight," said Baloo.
As the
story goes, “this talk went in at one ear and out at the other, for a boy who
spends his life eating, sleeping and making merry, does not worry about
anything till danger actually stares him in the face. But, one year, Baloo's
words came true, and Mowgli saw all the Jungle working under that ‘Law of
Nature’.”
“It began
when the winter Rains failed almost entirely, and Ikki, the Porcupine, meeting
Mowgli in a bamboo-thicket, told him that the wild yams were drying up. Everybody
knew that Ikki is ridiculously fastidious in his choice of food, and will eat
nothing but the very best and ripest. So Mowgli laughed and said, "What is
that to me?" "Not much now," said Ikki, "but later we shall
see. Is there any more diving into the deep rock-pool below the Bee-Rocks,
Little Brother?"”
In my mind,
Sri Lanka’s ‘deep rock pool below the Bee-Rocks’, are our natural, social,
cultural and heritage assets we still have in abundance. In a modern society,
where the Rule of Law must replace the Law of the Jungle, we need to ensure
that we take good care of these assets, for without them we would be worthless.
Within the domain of the Laws of the Jungle, Kipling had
defined the rights of the members of the wolf pack as follows:
“Cub-Right
is the right of the Yearling. From all of his Pack he may claim Full-gorge when
the killer has eaten; and none may refuse him the same. Lair-Right is the right
of the Mother. From all of her year she may claim one haunch of each kill for
her litter, and none may deny her the same. Cave-Right is the right of the
Father--to hunt by himself for his own. He is freed of all calls to the Pack;
he is judged by the Council alone. Because of his age and his cunning, because
of his gripe and his paw, in all that the Law leaveth open, the word of the
Head Wolf is Law.” He then declared “Now these are the Laws of the Jungle, and
many and mighty are they; but the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch
and the hump is--Obey!”
These are
the attributed rights in the domain of the law of the jungle. Yet in the domain
of the rule of law these rights take a different form and they are defined in
relation to the common good, fair access to opportunity and effort,
meritocracy, equality, freedom, justice, transparency and accountability.
WD original shared on Mywall.com
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