“The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human’s zoo” — this celebrated statement was authored by writer and biologist Desmond Morris. Obviously, comparing such a harsh, inhumane and unbalanced world with life in the jungle is an insult to the sustainable life in the pristine forests.

The culture of the jungle is a democratic one, where everything, living and non-living stay together — this is a wonderful democratic area of coexistence.

In the jungle, the residents have definite and limited needs. No organism in the jungle harbours the motivation to accumulate the available resources whether they are animals or the human communities living within.

Even an animal as fierce as a wolf doesn’t hunt if its stomach is full, they don’t worry about tomorrow, they know that nature is abundant with resources and has enough capacity to feed its entire population

Ironically, it is human ‘civilisation’ that struggles with scarcity, poverty and hunger. The countless deaths attributed to scarcity of food and water are due to the human tendency to accumulate and hoard.

Gandhi once famously remarked — “Earth provides enough to satisfy everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed.”

Human tussle with the idea of diversity

We are unable to accept diversity and this tradition of rejecting what seems different than our own selves is centuries-old. Therefore, wherever there is diversity, we perceive it in a derogatory or threatening manner. We, as a race, are not comfortable with diversity so we demean it.

The jungle, however, is a region where even the apex predator is dependent on a wide array of diversity of other creatures.

Life in the jungle is not only diverse, but also simple and sufficient. Living there is not as difficult as living in the so-called civilised world.

It seems as if civilisations have been built as a response to the issue of diversity and they rely on the principle of homogeneity.

The extinction of diverse species, not only of human beings but also of plants and other species paved the way for the creation of our modern civilisation.

It would be safe to assume that modern civilisation is the manifestation of a philosophy that advocates relentless consumption of resources by a few privileged people who undermine the wide majority of lesser privileged human beings and other species.

Existential threat from modern civilisation

The planet isn’t to be saved, the forests are not to be saved, it is human civilisation which actually needs to be saved from imploding itself.

The world is at stake; it is in great crisis as declared by sociologist Ulrich Beck. We don’t even know the existential threats the future holds for us.

Not only nuclear and other modern weapons of mass destruction, but the sheer manner of consumption has become the root cause of devastation of all lives on planet earth.

For example, adulteration in food is causing severe diseases, people dying in road accidents due to the massive use of vehicles in lakhs every year, mental and physical diseases are spreading rapidly owing to the ultimate consumption of mobile phones, laptop and other technologies; so what we consume routinely is much more devastating rather than the weapons we deploy in warfare.

So the threat from consumer products is much more than the harmful weapons.

We are consistently growing up in a culture of false needs of the market, which badly affects our entire social and economic life. We are compelled to consume those products even if we don't want to, thus it is a deliberate consumption of false-needs.

If we don't do it, there is a danger of being thrown out of the mainstream of civilisation.

There is nothing bad in being thrown out, nothing scary, if there is an alternative space for an alternative way of life.

Terrifyingly, modern capitalism has swallowed up the alternative space of life-world that was — the jungle.

Navigating alternative spaces

Jungles have been such an alternative space- where people could do something meaningful by running away from the madness of civilization.

Especially in India, our ancestors produced great knowledge in the forests — Aranyaka, Vedas, and Upanishads all developed in the culture of the jungle.

Now creation is difficult, since we have almost destroyed the alternative world of jungles. We no longer have jungles left, even if we have, they are being destroyed in the further development of modern civilisation. The crisis is grave. We are dying in search of life.

The philosophy of the deprived is the most inclusive philosophy.

It has the ability to take everyone along. There is no rejection and there’s acceptance for everyone.

But the jungles are in shambles. The philosophy of the jungle is the philosophy of humanity. The jungle is of immense importance for us and the worldview of the jungle must be preserved.

Civilisations have been raised on the ruins of the jungles, ironically no civilisation has created the jangle ever. Whether our civilisation is ancient or modern, the sacrifice of the jungle is behind the creation of all.

We took wood, stones, water, food and even medicines from them. Can any civilisation be imagined, whose foundation and towers are built without the contributions from the jungle? On the other hand, did civilisations ever create jungles?

The world is getting tired of the technological advancements and is beginning to suffocate in big buildings, lengthy roads become fatal, our market-driven achievements prove to be futile, and if we want to escape from all this and wish to go somewhere far, then where will we go?

No doubt people would choose to go to the forests, obviously not desert or sea areas, since only forest’s affluence would nurture us.

Interestingly, millions of people have been residing there for centuries with their sustainable jungle’s worldview.

Just going through the book El Abalador (The Storyteller in English) by the Spanish Nobel Prize-winning author Maria Vargas Lyosa, we see how the philosophy of the jungle is a way by which a Latin American tribe are surviving, only we, through deforestation, have taken them to the edge of their extinction.

The destruction of the jungle will ultimately lead to the destruction of civilisation.

Remember we are from the jungles, the jungles are not from us. Our existence is a few thousand years old, their origin took place millions of years ago. They generate us, they nourish us and they feed us. If we try vice-versa we shall be extinct soon enough. By conserving jungles, we can conserve an alternative way of life.

Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

Simply Put: The Great Escape