Q1.
What does it mean when we say ‘nature has no boundaries’?
Answer
It means that the lines people have drawn between countries exist only on maps and on paper. Nature does not know about them and does not stop at them. Air, clouds, rain, rivers, seeds, birds, fish and butterflies all move freely across the world.
Look at what actually crosses:
| What crosses | An example you can check |
|---|---|
| Air and wind | The monsoon wind that brings our rain forms over the ocean, far from India |
| Clouds and rain | A cloud made over the Bay of Bengal drops its rain on Assam, hundreds of kilometres away |
| Rivers | Rivers begin in one land, pass through others and reach the sea in yet another |
| Birds | The rosy starling flies from Russia and Mongolia to India every winter |
| Fish and sea animals | All the oceans are joined, so a turtle can swim from one country's coast to another's |
| Seeds and plants | Chilli from South America and marigold from Mexico now grow all over India |
| Dust and smoke | Dust blown from a far-off desert settles on our cities |
And the sentence has a second half, which is the important one:
- Because nature is shared, the good is shared — rain, birds, seeds, fresh air, new foods.
- Because nature is shared, the harm is shared too. Smoke let into the air in one place does not stay there. Rubbish thrown into a river travels down it and out into the sea.
- So looking after air, water and living things cannot be one country's job. It has to be everybody's job.
Why the astronaut's words at the start of the chapter matter: Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla said that from space the Earth looked completely one — no border was visible from outside. He was not making a wish; he was describing what he could see. The borders are real for passports and post offices. They are not real for the air you are breathing right now, which was over some other country a week ago.
Try this in class: Ask everyone to hold their breath for five seconds, then breathe out. Say: that air is now leaving the room, going out of the window, over the town and away. Nobody can call it back and nobody owns it. That is what ‘nature has no boundaries’ means, in one breath.