By H H Mohrmen
The theme of this year’s celebration for World Environment Day is, ‘Connecting people to Nature’ but in the context of Meghalaya or the Khasi Pnar people in particular, perhaps it would be appropriate if the theme is rephrased as ‘Reconnecting people to Nature’ or going back to our roots. The reason is because the Khasi-Pnar have always been people who have profound connection with the nature around them but of late this relationship is being affected as day by day people are moving further and further apart from the nature, they call mother.
Few months back I came across a story in the press about the Supreme Court of New Zealand order in connection with the character of one of the rivers in that country. The order was on the appeal made by the Maori the indigenous people of New Zealand who demanded that the court declare the river (which the Maoris consider as their ancestor) as having a personality of its own. The order declared that river Whanganui must be treated as a living entity and by this decision the river has been granted the same legal rights as a human being.
It would surprise us that rivers and personalities die. Well, it shouldn’t because in the Khasi-Pnar tradition all the rivers were treated as having their own persona. The story about Umiam and Umiew, Lukha and Lunar, Kupli and Iale and other rivers too, have stories where they were given a persona of their own and in some cases they were even considered as mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers by certain clans or communities.
The Khasi-Pnar have a deep relationship with nature. This is obvious from everything they do in their day to day life. This relationship with nature manifests in everything they do from getting up in the morning by making use of the animal calls and birds’ chirping, to reading the movement of the celestial bodies to decide on their agricultural activities.
The Khasi-Pnar ancestral wisdom of keeping time by reading their time from what is happening in nature is another example. They know it is time to get up when the rooster crows and the crows sings. They know it is lunch time by simply looking at the position of the sun and listening to the sound of the insect which tells them it is time to pack their bags and tools and head home before it is dark. Even if they don’t have a watch in their hand they were able to tell the time by reading and understanding the signs of time around them.
As far as seasons and calendar goes, although it is not systematic or scientific, yet they have their own calendar and plan their activities according to the calendar they created which is influenced by the changing of the season in the area. All their farming activities are based on the changing of the seasons. The different celebrations and festivals that people observe are also planned in accordance with the local calendar they maintained. In their farming scheme even the movement or the position of the moon influences the way they plant crops and trees. They will always take the position of the moon into consideration to decide the different farming activities they follow. Their calendar which has eight days in a week, 28 days in a months and thirteen months in a year is not only unique but it is also like a annual roadmap which dictates what they do and most importantly when.
Our ancestors may not have a systematic knowledge of plants and animals but they not only have different names for all the birds, the plants, the animals, fishes and the insects but they even connect their call or hum to execute their farming activities. So when the Cuckoo calls they say it’s time to sow maize and an insect is even named ‘pyn-ih saiong’ because the season it hums always coincides with the ripening of the fruit. They also know the seasons when animals mate, when the fish lay their eggs and also the different stages of plants lives. For instance recently, when I sought a farmer’s help to plant a bamboo sapling, he commented that this is the best time to plant bamboos because it the time of year when the bamboo is pregnant.
Recently a post in the Facebook of a friend asked if we have a name for cyclone, but the traditional wisdom of the Khasi-Pnar is very rich because we have different names for the kind of winds that blows in the hills. We have names for different winds like ‘Erbatemon, ‘Eriong, ‘Erlangthari and u Kyllang. Our ancestral knowledge is immense because we not only have several names for the wind but we also have different names for rains, like ‘Lapraw, ‘Lapbah, Slaprymphu and u Pylliang.
In recent times, Government has drawn flak from every quarter for the tree plantation programme that it organises every year to celebrate World Environment Day. The government was criticised because the survival rate of the trees planted as part of the celebration is very low and in some cases the survival is almost zero. The low success rate of tree plantation or re-afforestation that the government organised is because foreign species bought from Assam and other places were used in the plantation. Now the government through the Meghalaya Basin Development Agency (MBDA) is making use of the lessons learned and by using indigenous knowledge and locally available material has reinvented the entire process from nursery to plantation and management of the plantations.
The introduction of community nurseries where people are involved in the raising of nurseries and the idea of growing only local species endemic to the area (in the nurseries) will also help improve the survival rate of the saplings planted and the success of re-afforestation. Again, the idea of making community nurseries a business enterprise is also a commendable idea because it will not only make tree plantation during the World Environment Day a success; but it will also help the community earn some revenue from the activity.
So the question is, what is the situation today. As a community, what kind of relationship do we now have with nature? In so many words we can say that we have lost touch with nature and no longer have the same kind of connection that our ancestors used to have with mother earth. Most of us or our kids are now confined to the four walls of their room; they don’t have time to even step out of their rooms.
We are too busy with our lives and no longer have the opportunity to observe the mystery of nature around us. We do not have time to look at the moving clouds and learn about the weather; we no longer have the time to look at how the plants grow and how the animals live and grow from time to time. Since our kids are confined to their rooms they also learn from secondary information from books and the internet and miss the opportunity to learn directly from nature. Our kids are missing the opportunity to be close to the nature and learn by observing the changes that happen around.
The kind of competitive upbringing we provide to our kids is goal oriented and we make them believe that the objective of learning is only to get high grades and nothing else matters. We inculcate in the minds of the young ones that securing top grade is the only goal because second grade has no place. Now we also tend to believe that the only objective of learning is to get highest grades but the question is what do they really learn in the process.
Our kids and especially those who are in the towns and cities needs to go back and reconnect with nature! They need to learn the lessons provided by nature. Nature has so much to teach us and it is waiting for us to reach to its bosom and learn from its store house of knowledge. Connecting with nature also means understanding nature and the changes that happen around us.