Mother Earth is the basis of life – it gives us birth,
it sustains us, fosters us and in the end, engulfs
all of us within itself. All living beings, plants
as well as animals, born from mother earth’s
womb lead their life-cycles in their own unique
ways and play their own roles in establishing
the ecological balance. Every living being is
different from the other but is intricately linked
with the other through the ecosystem and deeply
affects the other.
All activities on the earth happen at their right
times. Rains arrive at the fixed time, and so do
summers and winters. Each season has its own
significance. Rainy season is pleasant. It not only
satiates earth, it satiates minds and bodies of living
beings too. Water evaporated by heat rises into
the air and creates the large dark clouds. When the
clouds shower rains, the dry earth and thirsty living
beings feel replenished and satiated. Rains bestow
life and enhance the green cover of the earth.
If rains are delayed, everyone gets worried.
In some specific years rains get delayed due to
what is known as the ‘El Nino’ effect. Normally,
waters of Pacific Ocean to the west of South
American country Peru is cold. In this season
this cold water from ocean depths rises to the
surface. Along with cold water several nourishing
substances also rise up which significantly
increase amount of vegetation in water. Due to
this increased availability of food the number
of fishes increases in the water significantly.
These fishes then become a good source of food
for sea birds and human beings. Peruvians use
these fishes as fertilizers because they contain
a lot of phosphorus. This is how the ecological
cycle works normally. However, this cycle
gets completely upset in El Nino years, which
spells disaster for Peruvians. We Indians also
get severely affected because the relationship
between the oceans and the atmosphere are very
intricate and many a time rains are deficient in
India in El Nino years.
Cycles of nature provide food and nourishment
to plants and animals. It is believed that
cyanobacteria that absorb energy from sunlight
came into existence upon the earth 3.5 billion
years ago. Whereas the black coloured fishing
water birds – cormorants, appeared on the earth
only 200 million years back. In this long period
the variety of living beings have been growing
at a steady pace, enriching the complexity of
mineral and energy cycles like that of oxygen and
phosphorus in the ecological system.
The steady progress of ecological systems is
possible only due to the process of natural
selection and the key to success in natural
selection is the ability to adapt. This process was
executed many times in the oceans of the world
giving rise to a large number of new species of
plants and animals.
It is believed that about 3.75 billion years ago,
some micro-organisms appeared who could
absorb energy from the ions of hydrogen,
iron and phosphorus. But there is no definite
evidence which proves this hypothesis. However,
cyanobacteria did appear about 3.5 billion
years ago who could extract energy from light
and formed the basis for the development of
ecological system that we see today.
When plant kingdom was taking roots upon the
earth, ultraviolet radiation received from the sun
was a very big challenge for survival. Oxygen
content was very low in the atmosphere and there
was no ozone layer to absorb the UV radiations.
Water is a good absorbent of UV rays. So in the
depths of the ocean, pure light was available bereft
of the UV radiations. It is indeed a big miracle
of nature that it brought forth cyanobacteria in
ocean’s depths which had chlorophyll to absorb
the energy from sunlight. This process has lived
on for more than 3 billion years.
These bacteria with chlorophyll generated
oxygen; it increased the levels of oxygen in water
as well as atmosphere, due to which development
of different species of plants and animals became
possible. Sugar is the main source of energy for
all living beings. Compared to the amount of
energy that can be extracted from glucose without
oxygen, the energy extracted with oxygen is about
15 times higher. But new chemical processes are
required for this. As oxygen became available,
the way was paved for creation of organisms
that were bigger in size than bacteria and more
complex in constitution. These one-celled
organisms developed tentacles that could grab
nutritious substances from surroundings. Some of
the organisms developed the capability to swim
and the skill to hunt bacteria and other organisms.
This occurred about 600 million years ago,
scientists believe. Then slowly and steadily
multicellular organisms came into being. The
organisms developed thorns to cover their bodies
for protection, created skeletal structure and
external protective armour. Sponges came into
being whose bodies are full of pores and who
are empty within. Remaining at just one place
they could soak in nutritious substances from
the water that flowed through them. There was
enough organic matter and nutrition available in
water which helped developed living beings with
head, body, tail, muscles and brain. The process
of creation of mollusks, crustaceans, fishes etc.
in water, followed by amphibians, insects, birds
and other complex animals has been steadily
progressing over millions of years.
At the end of this long creation process, human
beings appeared. Environment got enriched
with all the creatures and the ecological
systems developed where all the living beings
got intimately linked with each other. In his
onslaught of selfishness man has forgotten that
he is nothing more than a tiny link in this long
chain of development of life on the earth and
who could not have come into being without
the preexistence of so many other living beings.
Man must regard himself as a vital component of
nature and put in conscious and consistent efforts
to further enrich the ecological system. Only then
will he do justice to the important role that he has
been granted.
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