LEC052020-Elizabeth Jacob-Draft 2- Nature Falls Apart

 Nature Falls Apart: An Ecocritical Reading of "Where are the Woods Children?"

 “Where are the Woods Children?”, the English translation of the Malayalam poem titled “Kadevide Makkale” by the famous modern Malayalam poet K. Ayyappa Paniker, was written a decade before the Montreal Protocol was passed. It was published in his anthology titled Ayyappa Panikerude Krithikal which came out in the 1970s, a decade characterized by the industrial and chemical pollution of biosphere, the depletion of forests and ozone, the extinction of plant and animal species and the explosion of human population, and by the development of a new field of study called Ecocriticism. This poem projects the poet’s concern for the depleting natural beauty of Kerala.

K. Ayyappa Paniker was one of the pioneers of modernism in Malayalam poetry. He published over 25 works including his seminal work, Kurukshetram (1960), translated several works into Malayalam, and edited numerous anthologies like Indian Literary Encyclopedia published by the Sahitya Akademi. He had received a number of prestigious awards including the Padma Shri, Kendra and Kerala Sahitya Akademi awards, Saraswati Samman etc.

Paniker’s works owe much to his birthplace Kavalam, a village in Kuttanadu, blessed by river Pamba and Vembanadu lake. The place is known for its lush green landscapes and sundry species of birds. With a longtime history behind it, Kavalam is part of Kerala’s cultural folklore. The pain of seeing the gradual disappearance of the greenery and innocence of his beloved Kuttanadu might have contributed to this poem packed with interrogative sentences directed to the youngsters. “Where are the Woods Children” discusses the changes brought by mechanization and urbanization. The green paddy fields and wilderness are being replaced by concrete forests. The estuaries that give life to the midland are now lifeless. “The roots of the woodland lawn” have withered and the hills leveled. Gone are the chatter of parrots and the righteous song of koels. The poet criticizes the negative impacts of scientific researches and inventions on nature. People are not concerned with the sinistrous changes happening around them. They are in an endless run after profit and knowledge neglecting a treasure trove of traditional knowledge. Poet urges the young generation to wake up to the fact that the effect of these changes is not just confined to nature. Destruction of environment has toppled the agricultural sector. It has resulted in the disappearance of several plant, animal and bird species, and in the degeneration of air quality leading to several diseases. When viewed from a wider perspective, man’s self-centeredness has adversely affected the environment as well as the cultural diversity associated with it. It has enfeebled certain communities like paddy farmers and the coastal fisher folk. It has also altered our food habits. From food to faith, everything is adulterated. These problems are systemic and cannot be studied in isolation. This interconnectedness of human and nature can be understood in light of Ecocriticism.

‘Ecocriticism’ or ‘green studies’ is a critical approach which began in the USA in the late 1980s and in the UK in the early 1990s. The term was coined in the 1970s by William Rueckert. Emerged in association with the environmental movements begun in the 1960s with the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Ecocriticism is concerned with the writings which “explore the relations between literature and the biological and physical environment” (Abrahms 96). It is the study of literature and environment from an interdisciplinary point of view. The American Ecocriticism is indebted to the transcendentalists such as Emerson, Margaret Fuller and Thoreau. The founder of Ecocriticism is the US is Cheryll Glotfelty. She was the co-editor of a collection of essays titled The Ecocritical Reader along with Harold Fromm. It had its own organization ASLE-Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, founded by Glotfelty, and its own journal ISLE-Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. In the words of Glotfelty, “Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and physical environment” (xviii).

 Ecocritics engage in questions regarding anthropocentrism which regards everything in terms of human value and experience and it can be considered as the root cause of current environmental problems. A present-day countermovement to this is ‘deep ecology’, a philosophical school founded by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess. Deep ecology is ecocentric while shallow ecology is anthropocentric which gives only ‘use’ value to nature. In the view of Fritjof Capra, an American physicist and deep ecologist, “deep ecology does not separate humans from the natural environment…see world…as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected…views humans as just one strand in the web of life” (“Deep Ecology”). A branch of writing emerged from Ecocriticism is Ecopoetics which emerged in the late 20^th century. It is quite different from nature poetry; it confronts disasters and environmental injustices.

“Where are the Woods Children” can be seen as an ecopoem. The poem was penned as a part of the Silent Valley Movement which aimed to protect the evergreen forests of Silent Valley of the Western Ghats situated in Kerala from being flooded by a hydroelectric project. This movement which had the support of several influential figures like the ornithologist Salim Ali became a success when Silent Valley was declared a National park. The movement is also remembered for its poetry produced by a group of literary geniuses of Kerala who came to be known as the ‘tree poets’. The most prominent figure of this group was the poet-activist Sugathakumari. She compiled all the poems dedicated to the forest under the name Vanaparvam which had the poems of ONV Kurup, Vyloppilli, Kadammanitta, D Vinayachandran etc. “Where are the Woods Children” also comes in this anthology.

In brief, “Where are the Woods Children” is not a mere nature poem. It is not an elegy to nature; rather the poet uses this poem to change our perception of reality. In our current outdated worldview, man assumes the role of a hunter and nature, the hunt. The changes in the nature which we consider insignificant can be a threat to human existence. Therefore a change to an ecocentric worldview is inevitable for the survival of both nature and man.