Pernicious Misconceptions

The misconceptions of mankind about how wildlife causes damage to our infrastructure is very much ludicrous. People often blame wildlife for damage to crops, attacking humans, destroying infrastructure and much more, but we do not realise that it is us who have invaded their  lives, destroyed their homes, and brutally finished the different races of wildlife just for our personal benefits and needs. We pollute habitats. We illegally hunt and kill animals and as  human population is growing so fast, animals and plants are disappearing 1000 times faster than they have in the past 65 million years. I know that writing about this will not change a thing about it or make me a wildlife conservator, hence through this blog I plan to list these threats so that we can know that how we can still bring change.

Amongst the threatened wildlife, bird life and insect life, agriculture in its current form poses the biggest hazard to these species more than any other factors. Agricultural practices used to be the greatest factor to support huge bird and insect populations, but the Un-organic and pesticide filled practices have only helped to reduce the population of avi-fauna it once supported. Though this can be changed through the practice of organic and sustainable farming which yields the equal amount of crops to the farmers as the usage of  Un-organic means of agricultural practices and pesticides, along with the advantage of protecting the environment.

The expansion of housing companies and huge industries have taken over the agricultural land after which small farmers and labourers are forced to resort to forest and clear them out for residing and farming which causes damage to nature and wildlife and as well as to humans and the climate.
When people intrude forests to expand agricultural land, animals of prey, usually leopards and tigers are threatened and in return they attack humans in fear. These animals are later on labelled as "Man-Eaters" and are simply killed due to this reason. Even simple and shy creatures such as snakes which help eradicate mice in fields are treated as a threat and are brutally killed on site.

A Russel's Viper decapitated by foolish people.

Birds which are included in the Sparrow family are disappearing as they have no where else to go. They cannot withstand the electromagnetic radiations produced by the telephone towers.  Due to this factor sparrows resort to village areas where usually agriculture is practiced and they usually damage many cereal and fruit crops. They also spoil cereal crops, animal feed and stored grain with their droppings. Their nests may block gutters and down pipes. So we cannot simply label them as 'Vermin', as we are the ones responsible for their suffering.

House Sparrow's which fell out of the sky due to heavy radiation.

Birds, namely Egrets and Herons eat worms and other insects from the fields and keep check on their population. Falcons, Kites, Hawks and other birds of prey help remove the mice and rats from the fields which are responsible for damaging the crops and soil. Sunbirds are  known to play an important role in pollination, while Larks, Pipits and Swallows put a check on pesky insects, yet all these birds are dying due to the pesticides used in fields. One such example is of the Red Headed Falcon from India. The population of this species has drastically gone down, as the mice which it catches and eats have consumed the crops filled with pesticides which poisons this falcon including many other birds of prey.

The Red Headed Falcon in Punjab.

For birds, this brave new world of intensification has meant death by a million pinpricks. Non-crop areas where birds once nested are now inhospitable fields of corn or wheat. Mechanised mowing injures birds and mangle their nests.  Farming practices have to radically change to become more sustainable as there are no easy changes.

Collisions with electricity transmission and distribution lines have been identified as the second-largest human-caused source of bird mortality. Between 10-41 million birds per year are killed by collisions with transmission lines; between 160,000 and 800,000 birds are electrocuted by distribution lines; and about 400,000 nests are destroyed annually due to vegetation clearing under power-lines.

Bees are also another order which is declining in population due to industrial agriculture, parasites/pathogens and climate change. The loss of biodiversity, destruction of habitat and lack of forage due to monocultures and bee-killing pesticides are particular threats for honeybees and wild pollinators. If this number keeps on declining it would destroy the delicate balance of the Earth's ecosystem and affect global food supplies.

 Bees killed by invasive wasps and fumigation.

Every animal has a proper function and place in this world and without them the ecosystem will get disrupted, hence instead of thinking only about our own financial gain we should also think about the wildlife around which is one of the greatest factor keeping our earth alive and protected from human greed.