________________
25. Ecological survival :
Global Survival (The Jain Perspective on Ecology)
Ecology is a study of harmful or beneficial interactions between organism to organism, community to community, organism to matter and matter to matter. These interactions are being further influenced by physical factors like light, temperaturez moisture, wind, gravity, space and time. When a variety of factors interact the process becomes very complex and infact that is what happens in the nature. Amongst the organism, if the interaction is beneficial to both the partners it is known as symbiosis, to one-commensalism and when harmful-antagonism. Innumerable intricate relationships occur in nature and make the science of ecology a very complex and fascinating subject of great relevence to the mankind.
The interactions are natural phenomena and have been going on since times immemorial and have led to the present day scenario on this planet. The natural interactions have been vastly interfered by the human beings primarily due to lack of proper education, degradation of moral and spiritual values and an outlook of materialistic possessiveness. Thus, primarily biological, chemical and, physical phenomena have now-a-days also become economical, social and political phenomena. This has resulted into depletion of natural resources, extinction of many species, pollution of environment with toxic substances, and has infact threatened the very existence of the human community itself. To-day, while on one hand human community is widely engaged in rapid destruction of
२२२ . व्रात्य दर्शन
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org