The United Nations has
proclaimed 22 May as The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) to
increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues.
International Day for Biological Diversity
focuses on the importance of nature in people’s daily lives, offers concrete
steps to make our food systems healthier and more biodiversity-friendly.
As the definition of biodiversity,
suggested by the 1992 Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), puts it, Biodiversity
is the ‘variability among living organisms, within species, between species,
and of ecosystems’.
As the UN Secretary General has pointed out, our
aim should be ‘to protect and sustainably manage the fragile and vital web of
life on our one and only planet!
It is said that, in the last 100 years,
more than 90 per cent of crop varieties have disappeared from farmers’ fields.
Added, this huge loss of diversity in our food systems results in malnutrition
and unhealthy diets, which are major risk factors of noncommunicable diseases!
On this occasion, it would be
meet on our part to celebrate our own Vandana Shivas and Jiddu Krishnamurtis at
the regional level.
The first in line would be –
Dr. Nirmal Selvamony!
Dr. Nirmal Selvamony, my past
colleague and mentor, [with whose help I presented my very first paper in
Punjab!] was the first to introduce a course on Ecocriticism in India in the
late 1980s at his alma mater Madras
Christian College, Chennai.
He is also the founder of the forum known as tiNai.
He has also coined the term,
‘Neo-tiNai poetics’, based on the tiNai theory of Classical Tamil Literature. He
has an entire list of ‘firsts’ to his credit.
[On an aside, kindly allow me to take some little happiness in the fact that, I was one of the founding members of an amazing organization started by Dr. Nirmal for the study of Literature and Environment, which originally was a wing of ASLE-USA!]
In one of his essays titled,
‘Ecorights’, which was published in a book titled, Current Issues in Bioethics and Environment, 2001, by the
Department of Philosophy, Madras Christian College, Chennai, Dr. Nirmal
Selvamony has drafted a wonderful declaration of Ecorights much akin
to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!
There are 24 Articles in this
Declaration, that are as follows –
Universal Declaration of
Ecorights
Article 1: All organisms (human and non-human)
are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Though all of them are not
endowed with the same sentient and mental powers, all should act towards one
another in a spirit of kinship.
Article 2: Every organism is entitled
to all the rights of freedom set forth in this Declaration without any
discrimination on the basis of either organismic status, or possessions of any
kind, material or non-material.
Article 3: Every organism
has the right to life, liberty and security.
Article 4: No organism shall
be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5: No organism
shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, or degrading treatment.
Article 6: Every organism
(including man) has the right to recognition everywhere as an organism (and not
above an organism) before law that is common to all organisms.
Article 7: All organisms
are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal
protection of the law.
Article 8: No organism shall
be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 9: Every organism
has the right to “privacy,” family, and home; to be safeguarded against any
attack upon its honour and dignity.
Article 10: Every organism has
the right to freedom of movement and residence within its ecologically
determined territory.
Article 11: Every organism
has the right to land and territory.
Article 12: Every organism
has the right to the resources
required for its survival, sustenance and well-being.
Article 13: Every organism has
the right to freedom of expression and the right includes freedom to change
identity and association according to ecological welfare and positive
eco-traditions.
Article 14: Every organism has the
right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
Article 15: Every organism has the right
to take part in the government of its ecoterritory.
Article 16: Every organism has the right
to ecological security (which includes the security of its community and
territory)
Article 17: Every organism has the right
to work and subsequent reward. Article 18: Every organism has the right to rest
and leisure.
Article 19: Every organism has the right
to an adequate quality of life; and the right to be safeguarded from threats to
such necessary quality of life.
Article 20: Every organism has the right
to knowledge necessary for the well-being of its community.
Article 21: Every organism has the right
to participate in the events of its ecocommunity.
Article 22: Every organism has the right to
an ecological order both local and global.
Article 23: Every organism has the right to
duties to a positive ecocommunity.
Article 24: Nothing in this Declaration of Ecorights
should be interpreted in favour of any one class of organism (such as the
humans) and nothing harmful to these rights should be indulged.
What an amazing Declaration
from a legend and a visionary, Dr. Nirmal Selvamony!
We are so proud of you dear
Sir!
On this wonderful occasion,
commemorating The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB), let us take
a resolve to abide by the Universal Declaration of Ecorights, celebrating
Biological Diversity in our own little ways.