Concern for Ecology and Reverence to Nature in the Reflection of Indian Milieu in the Selected Short Stories of Indian Author Ruskin Bond

Abstract

Ruskin Bond in Indian literature holds the same place as what William Wordsworh was holding in British literature. His love and passion for Nature is visible everywhere in his writings, especially when we are talking about his stories. Though Ruskin Bond's writings include immense sociological, cultural and historical values, yet his writings on environment are more significant. Bond's writings produce environment friendly culture, a contemporary critical approach to literature, spreading awareness about saving the earth from scientific and industrial onslaught. He has observed the beauty of nature since his early days and as a sincere devotee he celebrates it in his literary works. As a close observer of nature, he paints marvellous pictures of trees, mountains, birds, flowers, and animals, on the other hand he expresses concern for deforestation and depletion of greenery in the name of industrialization and development as well. His writings also reveal his concerns for ecological imbalance in Garhwal Himalayas by way of deforestation, stone mining, urbanization and irresponsible tourism. The aim of this paper is to highlight how Ruskin Bond has expressed his concern for nature which has been exploited by human beings in the name of development and how the harmful effects of human's exploitation of nature directly affect human life and living space. Keeping all this in mind, this study has been undertaken to examine the ecological concern in Ruskin Bond's selected short stories.