Essays

Virtually, the sole purpose of science is to understand the natural processes of the earth and its environment. What is done with such science, of course, is a matter of individual choice. Some such as Hitler decided to use humans as guinea pigs to conduct the kind of experiments on Jews that geneticists are probably secretly performing even today. Others such as Darwin chose to use the ultimate scientific tool, the human mind, to work his way through the maze of possibilities to arrive at the most plausible way in which life on earth originated.

For centuries in India, the scientific temper has been encouraged and has, in fact, been equated with philosophy as a pursuit of great worth and respect. We did indeed gift the world the zero. And we did cast steel that did not rust, long years before the rest of the world even considered such a quest desirable. Our art and culture reflects this penchant for discovery and even the Vedas still serve as a guide for those seeking to find meaning and balance in life. Both base their statements on solid facts, gathered over time. Both share a natural curiosity about the earth and neither expects to alter the way the earth moves. The purpose of field biologists should be to faithfully observe, share information, consult and decipher. All too often, however, this process is short-circuited by tangential objectives.

Everything on earth seems to mesh together, yet if Darwin were to be believed, it is really an evolving combination of life-forms developing in the manner of an embryo. Every single day, new species are being formed and others die in a symphony of such extraordinary complexity that science has only been able to nibble at the edges of its truth. Some social activists believe that such studies are worthless. That such science is elitist. They are wrong. It must have been someone with a similar temperament who followed langurs around hundreds of years ago, to eat what they ate so as to discover which part of the forest bounty his or her community could safely harvest.

Observing and understanding the natural world was at the very root of Ayurveda. In other words, Dr. Ullas K. Karanth might be accused of elitism, but not the tigers, or the deer he studies. Such efforts add to the knowledge base of all human societies and the scientific temper, he displays, should be regarded as one of our prime assets. This move could be a great leap forward for the conservation of hornbills, which are especially vulnerable in northeast India due to the traditional value attached to their feathers, casques, fat and flesh among many tribal groups. Hunting pressure has caused the local extinction of the Great Indian Hornbill in many areas in eastern and central Arunachal Pradesh. Entirely dependent on forest habitat and a key seed disperser, the hornbill is critical to forest survival and restoration. The birds primarily consume Ficus fruit, with small amounts of oily fruit and animal prey. Hornbills have unique nesting habits. The nest site is a natural cavity in a large diameter tree, extending above the forest canopy. Such sites are rare and thus act as a limit to the growth of hornbill populations, even in pristine forests. In areas that have been logged, the birds may continue to survive for years, but without reproducing. When such scientists choose to sell their science to the highest bidder, they abuse a chain of knowledge handed down to them over aeons. And when adivasi communities see how the earth is being betrayed, they protest, first peacefully and then with resort to violence. And that, of course, is the subject of an entirely different branch of science... the connection between violent social responses to resource destruction.