South Asian Jesuits meets in XLRI on Ecology

South Asian Jesuits meets in XLRI on Ecology


Posted on October 30, 2010 by tarumitra

XLRI Jamshedpur, 27 Oct: Over a hundred Jesuit-delegates from all the 20 Provinces of South Asian Jesuit Assistancy met inside their premier Management Institute, XLRI for three days to discuss the core issues of Ecology and Migration.
The attempt was to see the connection among Displacement and Ecology. Somebody put it this way, “Ecological degradation paves way for displacement and migration which in turn makes the poor more vulnerable and poorer.”
Eucharistic celebrations which are usually held indoors, were held outdoors. The idea was to make them carbon neutral. Two of the Eucharistic celebrations co-ordinated by Madurai and Patna provinces were organized outdoors with a twin purpose; going back to nature and reducing the use of the polluting electricity! A scientific calculation showed that the air-conditioned chapel with all the lights would consume nearly 6 KV of power in an hour i.e equal to burning 300 kilograms of coal or cutting down eight grown up trees!
One of those celebrations was centred around the issues of biodiversity. Frs. Tony Penda SJ and K. C Philip SJ coordinated the presentation of the Web of Life with the help of volunteers who took the roles of animals and plants that make up the web. They tied a string from one person to the another who was depended on him for survival. Slowly a well-knit web was produced.
On the second part of the presentation, animals like tigers were removed leaving the web lax and broken. Slowly as dependent plants and animals disappeared and there was no web left on the earth!
The Coordinator of Tarumitra, Fr. Robert Athickal S.J delivered a presentation titled, “The Paradigm of the mosquito: a way of entering into the Web of life.”