All World
Gayatri Pariwar

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.