An Ode To My Dying Bamboo Friends

Goodbye My Lofty Swaying Friends

Whither My Lofty Swaying Bamboo Friends
For Thine Time Hath Come
To Render Our Forests Bare and Brown

In Thine Demise And Barren Throes
Let Wisdom Sow From Thine Fallen Seeds
Let Not Our Forest Managers Repeat Blunders They Have Done To Thee

Let Thine Seeds Spring Forth Perspective Scientific Management Plans
Let Thine Seeds Enrich Our Natural Forests
Making It Luscious Habitats For Our Endangered Friends

We Pray Elephants That Browsed On Thine Succulent Nutritious Leaves
In Thine Time Of Opulence And Tender Green
Don’t Fall Prey To Electrocution And Gun

As They Trudge Yonder In Search Of Fodder
Trample And Devour Sugarcane, Banana and Maize
And Meet The Ugly Wrath Of Enraged Farmers

Awake Dear Slumbering Forest Managers
For Thine Time Hath Come To Introspect, Plan And Perform
Before Famine Bares Its tentacles Again On Our Abused Land.

Goodbye My Lofty Swaying Bamboo Friends
Until Thine Seeds Germinate To Thrive Again
In Thine Demise Let Wisdom Reign

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Note: Bambo which constitutes 13 per cent of the forest mass in Karnataka has dried up completely in Nagarhole and Bandipur national parks. Elephants which browse on the swaying fronds and tender leaves have started to move into village environs in search of food. Unfortunately, the Karnataka forest department, despite having experienced this natural phenomenon of bamboo flowering and drying in the Bhadra wildlife sanctuary, has no scientific forest management in place to tide over this situation.