Once upon a time, there was a woodcutter named Rajesh. Everyone in his village called him Raju. It was a very remote village in Mangalore District. Most of the villagers used to do small daily jobs for a living. The village was full of energetic old people, hardworking men and happy children.
Raju had many friends and was respected by the villagers, including fishermen and famers. For Raju, hard work for 10 hours would only fetch 100 Rupees a day. He would wake up early in the morning and only could sleep at 11 at night.
Rumour had it that there were children being abducted for money. Rajesh had divorced his wife 6 Years ago and had 2 children. Unfortunately, The younger son was kidnapped by the same kidnapper. So, Raju couldn’t risk losing his elder son. His elder son, nicknamed as Rajesh. jr would help him with stacking logs on their horse cart while he cut the trees.
It was the first day of Rajesh. jr to experience the feeling of cutting trees with his dad. Raju took his axe, saw, food, and some boxes ( to store the fruits of the chopped trees) while his son fed the horse and mounted it. Horse riding was new to Rajesh. Jr and he was thrilled by the experience. After 15 Mins of riding, they reached the forest, where Raju immediately got to work.
Raju knew that his son was a nature lover and served the nature protection club at the local school. So he gave his son some money and told him to get some rice and ragi flour for him. As his son left, Raju knew that the journey and buying would take 4 hours as the market was in the far away city.
Raju was wearing a cloth around his ears to avoid the sound of the saw machine. One hour into tree- cutting, he thought he heard his son calling him “Dad”. But when he stopped cutting and looked behind, his son returned him the money and asked him to stop cutting trees.
Rajesh jr. was furious with the fact that his dad sent him away to get ragi and rice so that he could cut trees without any disturbances.
“Dad, Did you send me away so you can cut trees peacefully?” Asked Rajesh jr.
“Son, you have let me down, Why did you not bring what I asked?” Says Raju trying to change the topic.
“Dad, stop trying to change the topic, just answer me!” Said his son.
“Son, first you tell me why didn’t you get what I asked” said a furious Raju.
“There was a landslide in the village I had to pass through, so I returned empty handed. Now answer my question”, said his son.
“Why son? Do you think cutting trees is bad? You should know that I have no other sort of income! Do you want to die out of starvation?” said Raju.
Rajesh’s son was extremely angry at his dad as he kept telling his dad not to cut trees, but his dad always has a reason around.
“So, if you think cutting trees is advantageous, name the points.” says his son.
Rajesh got angry at his son’s question, but still thought of the best possible advantages ever.
Cutting trees has many advantages such as providing a source of income for woodcutters, burning fuel for fireplaces, making many things of wood for our daily life, running many machines, which still run on wood increasing production, export and in turn, increasing country’s economy, building bridges and buildings connecting the world increasing trade and, giving food and raw materials, space for expansion, providing food for animals and most importantly, job opportunities for village people like us.
“So, do you think cutting wood is still bad?” Says Raju
“Only if you knew the disadvantages of cutting trees”, Says Raju’s son. “Cutting down trees destroys habitat of animal and birds, forcing them to enter cities, killing humans and putting themselves at risk. It causes floods and fire which result in economic damages. These fires cause pollution in the air killing/harming flying birds. The smoke makes it difficult to breathe choking and killing humans. It causes greenhouse gases to build up, destroying the ozone layer. It limits the supply of timber and wood causing people to lose jobs damaging the country’s economy. It can affect the discovery of new herbal medicines which would help in a disease outbreak. Tree cutting can cause soil erosion having multiple negative effects as soil flooding and soil pollution taking the ability to plant more trees. Soil erosion could then cause the rocky layers of soil to come on top making it unable to plant trees. It will affect the water cycle as the trees transpire and leave out water making severe droughts. Severe droughts causing lack of water which could cause severe thirst killing humans and animals.
With the current rate of deforestation, it is estimated that after 75 Years, all the rainforest are to be cut down causing native animals to leave the habitat.
Cutting rainforests down causes tribal people to leave their homes, which tribal people might not be happy about, possibly resulting in a war. Wars could cause resource droughts and loss in country’s economy. It also introduces multiple environmental risks to the planet.
Raju was ashamed by his act, but he was also surprised by his son.
“If you really wanted some income, you could always be a farmer and grow crops” Says Rajesh.jr
“Son, you should know that in this village, only low class people are farmers, medium class like us are not supposed to do dirty jobs like that”, said Raju.
“But isn’t it better to farm than kill trees which have literally done nothing to you? Raju was extremely embarrassed by his act and hugged his son and told him that he is more happy to see his son happy than keeping his dignity above everyone else.
~Suraj Marathe -7 LS
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