The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Nature’s law reflects best in the jungle

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Thursday, Dec 11, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Nature’s law reflects best in the jungle

S. Harpal Singh

Trees begin to shed leaves signifying onset of autumn

- PHOTO: G. SANJEEV REDDY

Heralding seasons: As winter sets in, the forests in Adilabad take on a brown and yellow hue.

ADILABAD: A trip to the scenic forests in Adilabad district at this time of the year will not only be a pleasant exercise but will aid in understanding mother nature in its full form. With customary, clock-like precision , the greenery is acquiring a yellow-brown tinge as trees begin to dry up signalling the onset of autumn in the jungles here.

“It is sheer harmony,”, observes writer B. Muralidhar referring to the changing colours in the forest and what the phenomenon means to human beings and animals. “The entire forest does not dry up at one go. Some greenery is left even until the mid-summer months for the animals to survive. In this manner, colours in the forest keep changing without in any way diminishing the beauty of the place”, he says.

Since time immemorial, the poets and litterateurs drew inspiration from nature to further the cause of optimism. Every change in the season was equated with some form of human misery or celebration thereby providing some tangibility to the otherwise intangible phenomena. “Nature poet Devulapalli Krishna Sastri wrote in Telugu about ‘shishiram’ the present season, in his ‘Krishna Paksham’. He injected great hope among despondent souls by referring to a new birth once the leaves shed from the tree. ‘Modu varina jeevithalu malli chiguristai’ is how the poet put it,” says Mr. Muralidhar. Others like Vishwanadha Satyanarayana have also written extensively about nature.

Tribal folk arts

Nature and its timely changes throughout the year has been a main component of most tribal folk tradition in Adilabad district. Many folk songs and dances in Gondi and Kolami dialects and recount the different seasons and the colours that prevail at different times of the year. The Ghusadi dance depicts the mutual relationship of human beings with fauna in the forests. “One of the most important reason for the forest to be even revered by tribals is that it provides them with food in dry summer months and even during drought. Tribals make do with the tubers and roots of trees in the jungles around when regular food becomes scarce”, says Muralidhar.

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