It is another dawn as the sun rises above the horizon. The wind wafts through the forests carrying the fragrance of flowers to far off places.  The plants and the trees that exude the atmosphere with the pleasant smell have many medicinal properties.  So what the wind transports is no ordinary matter. Also it is another day for the local aborigines.  Wading through the water, walking through muddy paths, climbing up the mountain slopes, they go singing

                                                Alikade jungle

                                                 Palikade jungle

                                                  Shodu chala

                                                  Pudhe----

                                                  Shodu chala

                                                    Pudha---

(Here lies a jungle, there lies a jungle, here we go, In search of (our) roots)

Each tree each plant has a story to tell these local inhabitants, for they are no strangers. It is a relation, which is beyond the comprehension of you and me. It is a dialogue very silent, which transpires among them.

So close is the diversity linked to the life of a tribe, that  it is inevitable to ignore the different facets of man while addressing the problems related to the sustenance of biotic life in this planet.  Hence a biologist’s inquiry into the area of environmental science culminates into the study of linguistic studies and anthropology.  The anthropologists and linguists on their inquiries into cultural and linguistic diversity finally end up learning the significance of the surrounding environment.  This understanding has led to the emergence of a science called ‘Cultural biodiversity’.

 

Survival of this planet depends on ecosystem diversity, species diversity and genetic diversity. An imbalance in any of these factors is sure to tilt the balance and that has worried the ecologists, economists, and sociologists in general. It is an alarming situation the globe faces since the  last 25years.  As per the alerts given by concerned people one species is lost per hour! 20% of bird species ,30% of medicinal plants and 90% of big aquatic fishes .

This takes us to the question- how did our  ancestors  maintain a symbiotic relation? The answer is simple. The local people whom we call “aborigines” maintained the structural balance. They knew the eco system as they would know their neighbours.  They understood the inter dependency and the intricate implications of ignoring nature.

We in our greed to grab lands which belong to none, have  partially  destroyed these custodians of great wisdom, who can still unlock the great secrets of mother Earth.  All over the world their number has dwindled reaching a point of extinction.. 

The biodiversity is directly related to linguistic sciences.  Death of a language is the demise of a traditional wisdom.  To preserve the diversity, the existence of a community that is closely related to nature and its communication medium is a must.  You discover the world through a spoken language. Loss of this medium is a loss to civilization. It is observed that places rich in biodiversity are also places of biolinguistic diversity. Eg.-Africa, India and South America. Papua  is a country in Africa abundantly blessed with biodiversity. It is also the place where as many as 820 languages are spoken.

 

Going  back to the past, the folk songs, folklore, myths and proverbs made literature rich.  It was an encyclopedia of information that gave us a glimpse into the social life, economy and the symbiotic relation between man and his surroundings indicating the role of culture in sustaining diversity. Each language symbolized how the surrounding nature moulded the cultural differences of each society and how that culture responded to nature.

 When a language dies, various accumulated knowledge of survival also fades into oblivion irrevocably.

 

 

 

Tamanna Aurora  X1 Commerce (A)

Arya Prabhu