The Conversation Between Nature and Humans is of Utmost Importance: P. N. Gopikrishnan

The relationship and conversation between nature and humans – or between nature and culture – is of utmost importance, said poet and writer P. N. Gopikrishnan. He was speaking at the 31st edition of the “Beyond Square Feet" (BSF) lecture series organized by Asset Homes in connection with World Environment Day, Water Day, and Habitat Day.

Quoting the poem “Pallikkoodathilekku Veendum” by Edasseri, Gopikrishnan remarked that it is the existing systems and formal education that alienate humans from nature. “We Malayalis give a lot of importance to formal education. Even the early protests in Kerala weren’t for better wages but for equal educational opportunities,” he said. However, Edasseri had written about how formal education distances us from nature right after.

He illustrated this with the image of a child going to school for the first time in June, as depicted in the poem. The father urges the child to bid farewell to the birds he used to play with. The father knows that by the time the child returns from school, he will have forgotten the universally beautiful language of those birds.

Gopikrishnan also recalled how on February 14, 1990, the Voyager spacecraft captured the famous image of Earth — the “Pale Blue Dot". The term became iconic, and Carl Sagan even wrote a well-known book titled the same. Gopikrishnan emphasized that we must not forget that for all our love, hate, wars, learning, sorrow, and dance — we have only this one pale blue dot.

He referenced the 1930s Dust Bowl in the Southern Great Plains of the United States and the Four Pests Campaign during China’s Great Leap Forward in 1949, initiated by Mao Zedong, which resulted in the extermination of 10 million sparrows. As a result, locust populations exploded, leading to severe famine, in which an estimated 23 to 55 million people perished. We must not forget the lessons learned from those truths that emerged years later after the Iron Curtain lifted,” said Gopikrishnan. “Whether it’s in the name of democracy or communism, nature has always been the one that’s punished. This Earth doesn’t belong to humans alone — it is a shared habitat for all living beings,” he said.

As environmental crises and global warming-induced events unfold in unprecedented ways, Gopikrishnan stressed that we should not reduce ourselves to mere vote banks. He called for a vision that goes beyond the structures imposed by state and market forces — one that values the sustainable continuity of the community.

Sunil Kumar V., founder and managing director of Asset Homes, during the event, said that nature should be treated like an integral organ of each of our bodies. Asset Homes organizes the Beyond Square Feet lecture series thrice a year in connection with World Environment, Water, and Habitat Days.

Featured in:

1. https://www.keralasabdam.in/news/p.-n.-gopikrishnan-says-the-relationship-and-dialogue-between-nature-and-humans-is-important./

2. https://timeskerala.com/kerala/environ-day-talk-relationship-and-dialogue-between-the-nature-and-culture-is-important-says-gopikrishnan

3. Prasiddhi Communications

4. 24 News

5. Prasiddhi Communications