“….. When character (DNA) is lost, all is lost”: Retrospect Ecological Restoration
“Earth provides enough to satisfy everyman’s needs but not every man’s greed”-M.K.Gandhi
The popular quotation goes, “When wealth is lost; nothing is lost, health is lost something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost”. The characters in the narrow sense indicate the moral value of life that is essentially required for the well being of the individual for the best of the social life. But what is the basis of the biology in general and molecular basis of the life in particular. The answer lies in the understanding of the central dogma of the life. Irrespective of the dimension in terms of the quantitative and qualitative characters are concerned, it is the outcome of the nature and nurture equation. The paradox of the beauty of the nature and nurture concept is awesome debate of the beautiful mind. But in the central point lies the DNA-the helix of life that needs the translation of the life. The color of the rose petals or the rainbow of peacock, the fragrance of lavender or the beauty of the Daffodils, the credit goes to the DNA. The mammoth hippopotamus or the fierce lion Bengal tiger-the attention always in their respective genetic makeup. The genius attributes of Einstein and Rabindranath Tagore is still a centre of the beauty of all the molecular biologists of the 21st century. The answer lies in all cases whether it is qualitative or quantitative traits, the most of the understanding the inheritance. DNA consists of four letters alphabets (A, T, G, C) and it writes the three letter words (Codon) to make the beauty of the life almost all the organisms of the blue planet. DNA has built up the biodiversity of the world. Let us visit the biodiversity in general and fungal diversity in particular. Genes (unit of character) provides the blueprint of the construction and functioning of the organisms and their diversity is clearly fundamental. The biological world comprises of five kingdoms broadly viz. Monera (Unicellular prokaryotes), Protista (Unicellular/multicelluar eukaryotes) Fungi (Unicellular or multicellular, eukaryotes and heterotrophs), Plantae (Multicelluar autotrophs) and animalia (Multicelluar with holozoic nutrition). The total species still enumerated is 17, 44, 000 out of which Bacteria 4000, Protista (80000) Fungi (70000), Plants (270000) and animalia (1320000) although the estimated species are 140, 000000 including 1500,000 fungi.
The main three Ps-population, pollution and poverty are the great concern of 21st century and we are pondering over the sustainable development, People advocate that industrialization has been good for humanity-‘it has fed billions, doubled life span, slashed extreme poverty and by replacing muscle with machinery, made it easier to end slavery, emancipate women and educate children, homeless to home’.-, unfair to fair and it anticipates the doubling of the life span. It has allowed the people to read at night, live where they want, stay warm in winter, see the world and multiply human contact with 3G, 4G and upcoming 5G.Any costs in pollution in habitat loss have to be weighed against these gifts Some argued cleaner is better but not at the expanse of everything else in life. As we infest the world with our teeming members, guzzle the earth’s bounty heedless of its finitude, and foul our nests with pollution and waste, we are hastening an environmental day of reckoning. If over population, resource depletion and pollution do not finish us off, and then climate change will put the last nail in the coffin. We have been losing a number of the plants and animals as a part of the gene erosion to address the sky skipping greed of the human beings. We will never see them again. With the passage of time, thousands of plants and animals have been completely lost since the time of the origin of life. But that should not be accounted off as since the birth of modern civilization, the human beings cannot be made responsible in this regard. But the most important concern is the manipulation of the environment by man for the sake of achieving the peace and comfort by the dint of the ecological disasters. The presence of the foot prints of the following plants like Cooksonia, Lepidodendron, Rhynia, Silphium, Saint Helena Olive, Sigillaria, Franklina are restricted in the manmade museum. Plants like Adiantum lianzianeuse, Crudia zeylanica, Cynometra beddomei, Hopea shingkeng, Madhuca insignis, Otophora unilocularis, Stercularia khasiana, Begonia eiromischa, Euphorbia mayurnathanii, Mangifera rubropetala , Rhodendron kanehirai etc are some of the plants that have been completely lost forever from our mother earth due to ecological disaster and habitat destruction. About 160 species has been declared extinct by IUCN over the last decade. West African black Rhinos, Baiji white dolphin, Pyrenean Lbex, Passenger pigeon, Tasmanian tiger, Satellers Sea cow, Great auk, Dodo, Wooly mammoth, Sabre toothed cat are some of the examples of the extinct animals. The plants and animals list indicates the lost of millions characters along with the lost of the valuable genes. A Then comes the million dollar question about environmental restoration. Restoration of ecology is the answer to solve the growing problems of the gene erosion. The process of repairing sites in nature whose biological communities and ecosystems along with the habitat have been degraded or destroyed. The man has not only altered the natural habitat by introducing the high tech man made habitat but also humans have altered local native populations of plants and animals .He has introduced a number of invasive species , converted natural communities to extractive uses in the name of agriculture and industries, fouled water and has degraded the most replenishble soil resources. The ecological restoration deserves the focus on repairing the damages committed by the anthropogenic activities and it is the call of the time to return them to an earlier less polluted state to another which is almost unaltered by human activities. The climate change is one of the growing nuisances and unless it is checked and minimized by the different preventive measures, the habitat destruction will go on and in the forthcoming decades, the Mother Nature will be mother of a millions lost children of the different plants and animals’ species. So, the Healthier ecosystems with richer biodiversity, yield greater benefits with bouquets of more fertile soils, bigger yield of timber and fish and more and more natural oxygen plants We cannot ignore the voice of great environmentalist Rachel Carson “The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction”. The voice of the restoration of habitat and ecology only can ensure the sustainable life even after million years unless any severe natural catastrophe comes down.
