ಜೀವಕೆ ಇಂಧನ (Jeevake Indhana)
by ಬಸವರಾಜ ವಕ್ಕುಂದ (Basavaraj Vakkunda)
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This urgent eco-critical poem by Basavaraj Vakkunda, 'The Fuel of Life', addresses the environmental crisis caused by industrialisation and human greed. It celebrates the five natural elements (earth, air, water, fire, space) as the true fuel that sustains all life, then criticises 'civilised' humans for turning these sacred elements into commercial commodities, polluting air and water, poisoning rivers and felling forests. The poet warns that this destructive 'development' is collective suicide ('you cannot breathe money, nor drink gold') and calls on the young to conserve nature with reverence.
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Basavaraj Vakkunda's Jeevake Indhana is an urgent, eco-critical poem on the environmental crisis of modern industrialisation, capitalism and greed. The poet first celebrates the balance of the natural world: Mother Earth rotating to create days and seasons, and the pure air, river water and warm sun that make life possible, the sacred 'true fuel of life' offered freely to every creature, from a blade of grass to a great elephant.
Greed turns elements into commodities
The poet then criticises 'civilised' humans who, driven by hunger for money and power, have turned these sacred elements into commodities: polluting clean air with toxic smoke, poisoning rivers with chemical waste, turning fertile soil to desert, and felling ancient forests for concrete jungles while ignoring the silent cries of displaced birds and animals.
A warning and a plea
He warns that this destructive path of 'development' is collective suicide: 'You can have all the world's gold, but you cannot breathe money, nor drink gold.' He appeals to the younger generation to wake to the ecological threat, to replace greed with reverence and conservation, harvesting renewable energy, planting trees and protecting water bodies, and to treat Mother Earth as a living goddess so future generations inherit a green, living world.