STI Main 2011- Paper I

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow :
So often these days we hear and speak of 'the conquest of Nature', 'the taming of a river', 'the war against insects', and so on. Often these phrases are used without consciously attaching any values to them, but they have underlying them an attitude of hostility towards Nature and Nature's creatures, a view point which seems to assume Nature as an enemy that needs to be vanquished. Alternatively, Nature is seen merely as a 'resource'to be 'exploited', take the maximum out of it, regardless of what this does to natural processes and to other creatures which depend on these processes. It is this attitude which sees fellow humans too as a resource to be exploited or other human communities as enemies to be conquered.
There is a growing lack of sensitivity and respect for our fellow creatures. This attitude is being drilled into child by social forces, which can only be countered by environmental education. Yet, sadly, in most cases this is not done. What is done is talk about the food web and the energy cycles and ecological balance and how removal of any element disrupts the whole system and how this can affect human beings too. What this approach lacks is the essential interaction with Nature and with other humans. Indeed in many environmental activities the opposite takes place. A classic example of this is making of a herbarium, or even worse, and insect collection, as common in both formal and non-formal education in India. A child is often encouraged to pluck leaves and flowers and run after butterflies with a net and is part of a large group of children similarly marauding a patch of nature individual "specimens" pressed in the plant file or trapped in a jar. It is even worse when the activity is also competitive i.e. who collects the maximum. A lot of knowledge may be gained, but it is gained in a value system which emphasizes exploitation and conquest, not sensitivity and respect. Learning under a tree, (Shantivan) rather than in a classroom, as is indeed the Indian tradition, is far more effective and long lasting,

The alternative is to take up activities where ecobalances, ecological diversity, animal behavior, human plurality and other such concepts and systems are introduced with the stress on their intrinsic worth. Materials, processes, living beings do not exist only for human use, but more importantly they are worthwhile in themselves.

A frog is as much in love with its life as the human child is with its; the feeling of the frog must be respected. The final thrust of environment education seems to be embodied in the vital question: Am I doing something which disrespects or violates some other creature's right to live and live freely? If I am, what can I do to minimize the damage I am causing?
Once again, the Indian tradition of ahimsa comes out as infinitely more relevant, than much of what we learn in modern education.