World Environment Day

Our home is our planet with it’s unique combinations which have made life possible. These evolve and mutate with human intervention and the passage of time. The changes affect the flora and the fauna — of which we are a part — of this beautiful green planet. The World Environment Day is a UN initiative to protect the environment and to create an awareness about the changes wrought on it and how it could impact us as a species. Writers from yore have written of the beauty and the inspiration invoked by nature as have the moderns. Today, we share with you vintage writings as well as modern writing in prose on the world around us, showcasing the concerns of a century ago and the reality today.

Vintage Prose

One Small Ancient Tale: Rabindranath Tagore’s Ekti Khudro Puraton Golpo (One Small Ancient Tale) has been translated by Nishat Atiya. Click here to read.

Bolai: Story of nature and a child translated by Chaitali Sengupta. Click here to read.

Baraf Pora (Snowfall) : This narrative gives a glimpse of Tagore’s first experience of snowfall in Brighton and published in the Tagore family journal, Balak (Children), has been translated by Somdatta Mandal . Click here to read.

The Day of Annihilation, an essay on climate change by Kazi Nazrul Islam, has been translated from Bengali by Radha Chakravarty. Click here to read.

Modern Prose

The Gift : Rebecca Klassen shares a sensitive fiction about a child and an oak tree. Click here to read.

A Penguin’s Story: Sreelekha Chatterjee writes a fiction from a penguin’s perspective. Click here to read.

Navigational Error: Luke P.G. Draper explores the impact of pollution with a short compelling narrative. Click here to read.

Pigeons & People : In his fiction, Srinivasan R explores human nature and imagines impact on our fauna. Click here to read

The Theft of a River: Koushiki Dasgupta Chaudhuri reveals a poignant truth about how a river is moving towards disappearance due to human intervention. Click here to read.

Better Relations Through Weed-pulling: Suzanne Kamata introduces us to an annual custom in Japan. Click here to read.

The Toughness of Kangaroo Island : Vela Noble draws solace and lessons from nature around her with her art and narrative. Click here to read.

Potable Water Crisis & the Sunderbans: Camellia Biswas, a visitor to Sunderbans during the cyclone Alia, turns environmentalist and writes about the potable water issue faced by locals. Click here to read.

The Malodorous Mountain: A Contemporary Folklore: Sayantan Sur looks into environmental hazards due to shoddy garbage disposal. Click here to read.

Four Seasons and an Indian Summer: Keith Lyons talks of his experiences of seasons in different places, including Antarctica. Click here to read.

Tsunami 2004: After 18 years: Sarpreet Kaur travels back to take a relook at the tsunami in 2004 from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Click here to read.

A discussion on managing cyclones, managing the aftermath and resilience with Bhaksar Parichha, author of Cyclones in Odisha: Landfall, Wreckage, and Resilience. Click here to read.

Pangea to Plastics

Millions of years ago, 
Life bubbled into being 
In a world without walls…

While the World Environment Day steps in once a year, we live in an ever-changing environment every moment of our lives. The environment is what we make of it as it continues to evolve around us. It is impacted by our very presence. There was a time when all the world was a huge continent — Pangaea. Climate must have been as different as the flora and fauna then by what scientists tell us.

We have come a long way since that period. Looking at the concerns we face today, the United Nations has announced a plastic awareness drive. Plastic is not natural… but of human origin, just like United Nations. Climate change is the focus of the whole world, as temperatures rise, ice-caps melt and the weather turns more unpredictable.

Polar Bear testing melting sea ice Courtesy: Creative Commons

In this special issue, we have poetry from around the world showcasing the evolution of Earth, climate change, the way life has evolved and will continue to evolve —

Dreams of Disenchantment: Poetry by Michael Burch maps how man has contributed to global disasters through history. Click here to read.

Two poems excerpted from Greening the Earth: A Global Anthology of Poetry, edited by K. Sachitanandan and Nishi Chawla. Click here to read.

Specks & Spirits: Showcasing selected poetry excerpted from Rhys Hughes’ latest anthology of global voices, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Light Verse about Life & Other Heavy Things, these poems map the historic evolution of life on Earth, of humans, celebrate the diversity of flora and fauna and muse to wonder at our evolving place in the Universe… Click here to read.