Nature or the Greedy Human Nature?

The recent incident of Leopard sneaking into the Jammu City has again raised eyebrows, particularly against the development in the Forest land, i.e. the project of the new High Court on the Protected Raika Forest in Jammu. Unsurprisingly It is not the only project which is bypassing nature, in the name of development in the State. Another project, which relates to building a Dam, is also being cleared on Ujh river near Jasrota Wildlife sanctuary in Kathua, paving the way for cutting of 214,000 trees, and notably, there’s already the Ranjit Sagar Dam existing in Kathua which was also a national-level project. But It’s depressing that instead of opposing the projects on basis of environmental concern, the debate in Jammu Legal fraternity revolves around the question of either shifting both District and High Court or only High Court. The major concern of the Legal fraternity here is that the shifting of only High Court will affect their ease of business. All these developments, again bring us to the question that how these actions which are expressed in the form of a ‘Law’ in a State should be done/executed. Should we follow what is ‘Legal’ in order to achieve an end without justifying the means or should we try to seek what is ‘Just’ both in its mean and the end? 

‘Lex aeterna’, is the law of reason of the cosmos and human reason in an emanation of cosmic reason (S.M.N. Raina, J). The reason which the Greek philosopher used to describe the physical existence, the existence of life and course it follows thereafter. Everything is bound to follow the pattern of nature, which is necessary to maintain the equilibrium of survival. Nature can be interpreted in any sense, that is up to the intellectual capacity of every being. Nature is not restricted to the humanly created definition but it is much more than that. It is something that is common to every existing being. The nature and its produce cannot be restricted to an interpretation of a particular species, race, or culture.

Why this world is surviving, why everything occurred in a particular pattern, why it is to be followed? The justification given behind all this survival is the ‘Lex aeterna’ which humans should follow, but certainly, the human race has been disobeying it.   

The production and consumption is also one of the patterns which are being followed by a human in order to sustain their existence. Historically too, we can say that the civilization advancement is also an outcome of the advancement of the Productive forces in the civilization, used for better production in the civilization. And this urge for better production has captivated the humans to absorb whatever resource is available to them. But the problem here starts with the control and hegemony over the production and resources of nature. The hegemony does nothing good but creates chaos which is supposed to benefit those who have manipulated it. The hegemony is done for the purpose of enjoyment of the surplus from whatever is being produced. The hegemony and captivating urge for more and better production has placed us in a position where we have exploited almost all the source of these resources used for production. And still, there is no going back.

According to the Aristotle, the positive law, i.e. the Human-made law should be in accordance with the natural law which is ‘Just’ by nature, which can be stated as Lex aeterna, because Natural Justice is same everywhere. But time and again the actions of humans have contradicted this notion and we have ultimately witnessed its consequences every time. Be it natural calamities because of the disturbance in the atmosphere or poor waste management which has resulted in the exploitation of natural vegetation. Every year we witness the wildfires or melting of glaciers because of change in Earth’s atmosphere, yet, we go on doing our work for the so-called human betterment. It is expected that question will be asked that we should do? Don’t you also consume these products of the advancement of human civilization? But we should understand two things here, Firstly, that there is a recommended pattern of production as well as consumption which is sustainable and secondly, that the exploitation of nature benefits the privileged who are living on the surplus. The privileged include those who are more equal than the others and not the ones whose basic needs are not being fulfilled, especially the third world countries which are lowest in Human Development Index (Out of 189 countries, India went down one rank to 131 in the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI) in 2020). And now it is up to our consciousness that should we follow the positive law , which is made by those in the authority having no motive other than exploiting the surplus they are consuming from the production of the masses or should we question their Positive law on the grounds of natural justice, which is not only bound to the human race but to all other species as well?

There might be many who’ll ask what does the above explanation have to do with the leopard incident or undergoing projects in Jammu and Kashmir?

My answer to them is that everything has a beginning and in the excitement of the beginning we ignore the unforeseeable yet inevitable consequences.  

By: Himanshoo Atri