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Doing away with nature
Dear Diary,
The other day while passing through the busiest road of the city, I found it most difficult to breathe. With particles of sand everywhere in the air along with honking horns and clouds of smog, thanks to the traffic jam, the prospects of reaching my destination looked grim. The truth behind such a pestering scene was that the road was going through the widening process. The traffic finally began to move at snail’s pace and I heaved a sigh of relief, wondering that moving on that road was never so annoying, rather it used to be a very pleasant ride to which I always looked forward because of positive hustle bustle and fresh air all around.
Anyway, on my way back, when again the same bothersome episode was going on all over again, suddenly something struck my mind. What happened to the soothingly lush green strip of the road that used to separate the main road from the by-lane? The one with tall eucalyptus trees. The moment this thought occurred to me, I began to stare out of the window to get a better view. Surprisingly, not a single tree was in sight. After looking intently for quite some time, I happened to spot some trees lying on the ground, perhaps freshly chopped down as their leaves were quite green. A little away, some more trees, the same eucalyptus ones, were on the ground, looking old, worn-out, and weary with grief of being ruthlessly axed.
“Oh! My God,” I understood the whole story. While widening the road, the trees were chopped down, I felt overwhelmed with shock. That’s why the atmosphere was so polluted, hot and irritating as the trees were no more there on that busy thoroughfare. I felt myself tired as never before, perhaps those fresh breaths and puffs would not refresh and enliven me, any more. The very idea was enough to wilt me.
I vividly remember how driving on the lively road that ultimately leads to the university charmed me with the idea of a revitalizing long drive, fresh gusts of cool air energized drained students and exhausted commuters, trees significantly decreased the pollution caused by the cars and buses plying on the road and provided many other benefits. Now these blessings are no more. It’s true that the road would remain as busy as ever and so would the hustle bustle, but what about the refreshing feeling that those trees offered to the surrounding environment and who is going to pay for the consequences? This is a point, for all of us to ponder as road expansion could have been done without this merciless mass destruction.
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