India: Integral Ecology for a Diversified Region
A world of diversity
‘Northeast India,’ comprising seven states, perhaps has the highest density of cultural diversity in the world with 166 different tribes (population of 51,670,000) present in just 262,179 km². With plains, mountains and valleys, the altitude varies from the sea-level to its highest point at 7,090m above sea level. Nowhere is annual rainfall less than 1,000mm, and Mawsynram, with an annual rainfall of 11,872mm, is the wettest place on Earth. This region partakes in two of the thirty-six biological hotspots of the world (Himalayas and Indo-Burma Region), and shares 5,182km of international border with Bhutan, Tibet, China, Burma and Bangladesh. Amidst all these exist also problems like intranational and international migration, the disparity between the rich and the poor even among the otherwise egalitarian tribals and environmental degradation. It is this region that the Jesuits call the “Kohima Jesuit Region” (Kohima is the capital of Nagaland).
Against this backdrop, reflecting on the 4th Universal Apostolic Preference, it is pertinent that the Kohima Jesuits ask: What have we done? What are we doing? What can we do for an integral ecology in Northeast India?
Integral-Ecological Traditions - the good and the bad
We, the people of Northeast India, look at Mother Earth as a living system. The conservationist principle of maintaining a balance between consumption and regeneration is part of the ethos. Conservation practices include: ‘sacred groves,’ forestlands where human activities are forbidden; taboos forbidding certain peoples from consuming certain plants and animals; seasons forbidding hunting, etc. These are not just anthropocentric regulations: nature is considered to have life needing care, and the deities and ancestral spirits are believed to live in it and preserve it.
However, there are certain practices which degrade the environment: ‘zhum’ (shifting) cultivation where large forest covers are burnt down and cultivated before shifting to next covers; monocrop; slope cultivation; playful chopping of branches while passing through forests; omnivorous diet - expressed in the saying ‘Everything that moves is to be eaten.’ It is in this multifaceted scenario that the Jesuits need to return to the triple question.
By WK Pradeep, SJ
Source : jesuits.global
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