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Enviomment And Anekānta
167
and possess one sense of touch, hence they should not be harmed limitlessly has been amply borne out and need not be dealt with in detail here.
Very late it has dawned upon rational people, nations, governments etc. that even the ferocious animals like tiger and the smallest organism have the right to live and if man wants to enjoy existence, they also do want so. Hundreds of elephants were deprived of their lives in Africa just because ladies preferred shoes made from elephant hide. England and America just made wolves extinct only to regret later. England atoned by erecting a memorial to the last wolf. It is a matter of un-wisdom that some people take upon themselves the responsibility of regulating the population of the animal kingdom by killing tigers, snakes etc. This one sided view is unjustified.
If I am to predicate that a lion is both violent and non-violent you may scoff at me. But I have armed myself with the observations of a Russian zoologist named Yuri Dmitriyev who says, "'The lion lives in open country; it never lies in ambush or steals up on its prey. It attacks openly warning all and sundry, with its mighty roar that the king of beasts is out hunting. All living beings shudder at the sound of that roar. But the lion is magnanimous too; it never kills when it is not hungry. Aware of this; its “subjects” zebras and antelopes graze unafraid not far from a lion eating its prey. “(Man and Animals). From your point of view, the lion is violent, but mind that he kills to satisfy his hunger. As he (because lion is a king) does not indulge in wanton killing like man, is non-violent. Does the man not indulge in Arambhi hiṁsā (violence in the course of vocation) when he cultivates land to satisfy the hunger of himself and others? Lions, snakes etc. attack when they read in you the intention to attack or kill them. I have a story reported in ‘Prabuddha Bharata' magazine connected with Vivekānanda. It revealed that one Anderson went on lion hunting in the jungles of Jagadevapur but when his elephant confronted the lion it tumbled down the sahib out of fear of lion. Anderson also misfired, at the king of jungle and ran for shelter to a naked Muni. The lion didi come near but on seeing the naked man with nothing to attack or defend
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