Yesterday we saw pictures of nature's fury in states of Rajasthan, UP, Bihar, and Maharastra. Devastating scenes of floods destroying houses, roads and houses flooded with water, no food, power, deaths from snake bites, etc. Hundreds have lost their lives. Last month it was southern parts of the country Bangalore, Chennai, and Trivandrum.

All the state governments make lofty statements that they could handle any worst situation as their disaster management plan is in place. But when the situation arises nothing happens and people have to suffer as usual. 70 years after freedom we are yet to learn mechanisms to cope with disaster management.

It's time to listen to nature, it wants to us sit up and take notice of what human greed for 'development' has led us to. Nature is showing its wrath after bearing with us human insensitivity for long. If you recall, from the Himalayas to places like Shimla, even desert destinations like Pushkar in Rajasthan, the floods became a threat. Landslides buried humans under muddy debris, from Uttarakhand to Kerala, hundreds died not only in Kerala but also in Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Assam, and Bihar, etc.

I feel nature's wrath will continue as we have disturbed the balance of nature. In all urban agglomerations, the paddy fields are turning into housing colonies. Rock formations are disappearing under the relentless onslaught of quarry mafia. In cities, we notice, construction mafias, brick makers mafias, including the flourishing granite mafia. What chance has nature against these powerful entities each of which flourishes under some political patronage? From my childhood, around Ramgundam, a place from which I hail, we used to have big hills, now all of them vanished because of quarry mafias. The place was known for “Kundas(round earth formation which contains waters)” built by Rama, during the vanavas and temple, only that part is now still intact (thankfully). The area of few hundreds of acres of land is now occupied by housing colonies, including a big residential area of Singareni.

So, what’s happening? As we destroy nature, is nature destroying us? Nature's anger will be a phenomenon, none of our human mafias will be able to counter. Perhaps our sages anticipated this, hence the Vedic reference to “maha pralaya” that would trigger at the end of Kaliyuga. It refers to cataclysmic events that wipe out an entire life on the planet. Living in harmony with nature is the only option we humans have if not we have to be ready to face the consequences.