Nature is the greatest gift in human life : Kiran Nagarkar

Renowned novelist and playwright Kiran Nagarkar on Sunday said everyone should be taught about the wonderful aspects of nature from their very childhood to help them realise that it is the greatest gift in human life.

"May be I am being too ambitious. But I feel that he love for nature should be invoked in every single human being if we want to save it. Unless the children are told about the miracle of trees, wonder of birds, flowers and rivers, their love for nature cannot bloom," he said at a session on nature in Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival here.

"Of course, the artists and writers have a leading role to play in this. People should understand that nature is the greatest gift they have in life," said the Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novelist.

He said the children should be told stories of nature in the form of fantasy like he has done in some of his short stories so that it invokes interest in them.

British writer and translator Gillian Wright, who has been frequently coming to India since she is 19, said people here have a tendency of not paying any hid to adverse changes around them and stressed that writers in the country should focus more on highlighting the impacts on nature in their writings.

"What we have here in a way is a system of not seeing. I think writers and people from all walks of life, has to see what treasure we have in nature here before all of it is destroyed," she said.

"When we are talking about development, we are talking about construction. But when construction is happening with concrete or metal, there is simultaneous destruction of nature," she pointed out.

Citing the example of ancient city of Mandu in Madhya Pradesh, Wright explained how parts of India that was one filled with trees and gardens, now stands as devastated barren lands due to deforestation.

She also pointed out that while talking about nature in literature, one should not leave out the non-fiction writings as some of the most important writers on nature and environment are in it.

"We should have the leadership to see what we could do. The world or the country we live in cannot be shaped without our participation. I think every reader and writer has to play an active role in this regard," she added.

--IANS

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