Environment
nlok...@gmail.com
I thought about the frog after reading a news item in Economic Times,
today. The spread of diseases like Chickenguniya,dengue etc should
be thanked for the salutary effect they have aroused in the thinking
of higher up in Health Ministry about the life of Frogs. The poor frog
which is basically an amphibian and lives in both land and sea and has
an appetite for all the insects like mosquitoes, flies etc. You have
observed them sitting at a corner with their mouth open and their long
tongue extended out. When any fly or mosquito sits on that it
immediately retracts its tongue and swallows what ever stuck to its
tongue. So without knowing about any of the diseases the lowly Mr.
Frog does a social service by eating all the above and helps in the
spread of the diseases.
The frog in turn is eaten by the snake. The snake is the only creature
or animal which can go into the burrows of the mice and kill and eat
it. Thus saving the waste of rice, wheat and other eatables from the
rats. The amount of food eaten by rats in a year in India alone is
mind boggling. But we kill the snakes even when it does not do us any
harm.
The snake has the natural enemy in vultures, eagles etc The
insecticides we use in our agriculture have turned them either dead or
vanish and their numbers are dwindling. They do the scavenging work of
eating the dead and serve the society and ecology.
So in nature one animal or bird or creature eats another one and there
is always a check in the population of the animal kingdom.
The exception is man. He does not get killed by any animal but kills
all animals & birds, destroy trees, forests, rivers and lakes without
understanding their use. The only animal that can kill him is another
man. Even he has conquered many of the diseases.
But nature is a big teacher waiting patiently to teach him lessons for
the selfish man.