Thursday, 26 August 2021

Need and Greed

Does Nature gives us enough? Not only for us human beings but for all living beings and plants? Yes, it does. And continues to do so.

Nature addresses the need. 

It ensures enough feed. 

But not human greed! 

As Mahatma Gandhi had said that the Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”

While walking around our neighbourhood lake during monsoon, we noticed many wild vines and creepers all over. Many leaves in these wild creepers appeared half eaten with holes and perforations. We saw similar wild growth around a golf course close by. Here are some pictures.




It set us thinking. All this is part of the food chain. Food chains are part of Nature's evolution. So the leaves provide nutrition to the plant or the vine. The leaves also are food for insects and caterpillars. Similarly in a forest, Tigers may be on top of the food chain thus: 

Tiger-deer-grass-birds-soil-water-dry-leaves-as-manure and so on. You may read how birds are an important part of Nature's ecological balance.

How birds sustain the Food Cycle in a Tiger Reserve?

Some more food chains could be: 

Vultures-dead-animals-plants-etc. 

Serpent Eagle-snakes-rodents-plants-roots-insects etc.

Owl-snakes-lizards-frogs-insects etc. See the diagram below.

Fruit Bats-fruits-trees etc. In each of these food chains the decomposers like mushrooms are equally important to sustain the cycle.

As human beings, we should be responsible for maintaining and not disrupting Nature's food chain. For example, denudation of forests leads to reduction in number of deer which are food for the Tigers. This leads to increasing man-animal conflict. Deforestation in the hills leads to landslides causing silting of the rivers down stream and resulting floods. Floods also occur due to encroachment of river flood banks and Nallahs or drains in cities. Readers may browse our previous stories highlighting this aspect and listed below:

Chennai Floods Man-made

Flood Fury in Hyderabad - How a 91-year old reacted to flooding of her house!

KBG-62 Contest

The 62nd edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad, our online Captions Contest was based on the theme of Nature's Food Chain. The picture below received 30 different captions from more than 300 readers worldwide. 

We thank all the participants. Complete list of captions is given below:

Sl.

Name

Caption for KBG-62 Contest

1

Sunisha

Unknown pain seen!

2

Pradeep Sethi

Harbinger of change!

3

Jaishankar

'Cater' ing for others is the 'pillar' of an evergreen life.

4

PRR Rao

Happiness is letting go of what you think your life

5

Poonam Bhargava

छिद्र हुए तो क्या, किसी को तृप्त किया मैंने।

6

Avinash Tiwari

Bandhani work.

 

Poonam Bhargava

परोपकार से बड़ा कोई धर्म नहीं

7

Rohini Tiwari

Nature's Origami....unique and beautiful!!

8

Veeky Baths

Barishon ke mausam ki bheegi hariyali

9

Ajai Bhumri

बना बलवान अपने को वरना नुच जाएगा् " "Survival of the fittest "

10

Kishor Thakre

Caterpillars at work!

11

Pradeep Siwach

Lebanon (Refugees ate up the nation)

12

BC Jayaprakash

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.
John 15:13 .....Bible

13

Bharat Ladha

Global management of survival.

14

Rashmi Bhargava

Self sacrifice is a real miracle

15

Sujata Das

Nature's rangoli🙏

16

Amandeep kaur

There is no better designer than nature.

17

Siba K Patnaik

I am ok , I am fighting.

18

Manju Khetan

इक दिन बिक जाएगा माटी के मोल, बुरे बिचार के किटाणू ऐसे ही हमारे मस्तिष्क को क्षति पहुंचाते हैं।

19

Manu Bhatnagar

A very hungry Caterpillar

20

Shereen Sultana

Make a life by giving what you have

21

Ritu Bhargava

Not dead, nor alive, still breathing.

22

Nidhi Bhargava

जीना उनका जीना है जो औरो को जीवन देता है

23

Radhika Sareen

My loss, someone's gain

24

Radhika Sareen

Giving makes me more beautiful

25

GR Sreenivasan

Plant kingdom, lives to nourish other species including humans without expecting anything in return.

26

Saumya Goyal

There is beauty even in being broken.

27

Mamta Bhargava

We will survive no matter what may come.

28

Yogesh Verma

Jab Tak Hai Jaan
Jeevandaan

29

Peter de Padua

Nature's nature.

30

Peter de Padua

Green Gold, isn't it yummy?


The Winners of KBG-62
We are delighted to announce and introduce the winners of KBG-62. Their winning captions are also displayed alongside.

Yogesh Verma is a former Colonel from the Army Medical Corps. He is a nature lover and keen photographer. His simple caption जब तक है जान, जीवनदान meaning 'Keep giving till the last breath' conveys the self-sacrifice of the leaves as food for the caterpillars and other insects.

Saumya Goyal, a PhD in psychology is a poet at heart. She believes that Nature is the world's largest canvas on which God paints. Saumya's caption 'There is beauty even in being broken' interpreted the picture creatively.


Peter de Padua has won the KBG Contests previously also. A former Wing Commander of IAF, Peter is a water sport enthusiast. His short and crisp caption 'Nature's Nature' won the Jury's appreciation.

Radhika Sareen is an electronics engineer from BITS Pilani who worked with TCS for three decades. A keen traveller she is a regular participant in KBG Contests. Her caption 'Giving makes me more beautiful' caught the Jury's eye.

Once again our congratulations to all the winners and thanks to both the Jury members Manik Srivastava and Neeta Bhargava for their time.

We end this story with a PQ picturesque quote on maintaining Nature's balance through the food chain. The picture of Tigress Sonam was taken in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve.

Thanks for browsing. More KBG contests coming up. Stay connected.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/26th Aug 2021

#monsoons #rain #nature #wildvines #leaves #foodchain #predators #consumers #producers #undergrowth #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #lockdownfun #takeabreak #captions #life #craetivecaptions #pqs #picturesquequotations #naturetheteacher #learningthroughpictures #secunderabad #monsoonphotography #selfsacrifice

10 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks are due to regular readers like you Vicky.

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  2. Hearty Congratulations to the winners of the captions contest!
    The lucid description of the food chain in Nature, made us introspect!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dr Sitaram for your encouragement. Next time, will look forward to captions from you as well.

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks Pratik. Hope your channel is doing well.

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  4. Thanks for highlighting the circle of life which many are unaware of. And more importantly it's impact on our living

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks much Ron. We all learnt it in our schools. Just refreshing the basics.

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  5. Excellent response, some how my caption "JHROKHE" perhaps could not get uploaded.
    great excecise to keep the brains from rusting.
    HARSH ur keeping every one deep digging.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dr Sethi. That's a nice caption. You can also send the caption on WA in case it doesn't upload on the blog.

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