The Return of Dragon of Mohenjo-Daro

Curious

[Image: Great Bath, Mohenjo-Daro ruins, Sindh, Pakistan. Source: Wikipedia]  

It was early in the morning. The historian whispered: "It's the last 12 hours."

They woke up. The father had already prepared the breakfast.

After the breakfast, carrying the wounded men with them, they walked to a nearby place in the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro called The Great Bath to spend their last hours. The historian pulled out a replica of the Pashupati seal from her pocket: "The original of this seal was found near that hill you see over there. It shows the variety of animals which used to live in this region."

The girl said: "I didn't know there were rhinos here."

The historian said: "There used to be lots of rhinos. They were mostly eradicated by horn trade."

"Who is that man in between the animals?"

"It is a symbol of the lord of animals. This seal reveals a historical development when humans started taking control of wildlife."

The girl turned her face to the scientist: "I am sorry for the tigers. Is it possible to bring them back?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Is it possible to avoid the asteroid?"

"It was possible 6 months ago."

"Why didn't people listen to you?"

"Because the space program to avoid the asteroid was going to be too expensive. The government made a biased decision and they underestimated the risks. They saw all our predictions as a threat against economy. For instance, horn trade was more important than rhinos for them and petrol was more important than climate change."

"Were your predictions correct?"

"Yes. Almost. Actually the reality turned out to be even worse than our predictions."

"Was there anything you did wrong?"

The scientist hesitated for a moment but continued boldly: "Yes. We fought for the wrong reason."

"What was the reason?"

"We fought for the well-being of humans."

"Why is it wrong to fight for human well-being?"

"Because every time we predicted threats, humans found a way to guard themselves."

"Can you give an example?"

"For example we defended the diversity of species for medical reasons. But people kept discovering new medicine in lab despite many species were lost."

"But your prediction was correct that species were getting lost. I cannot understand why you were wrong."

"We were wrong because we were not honest enough. We defended well-being of humans but actually, at the back of our minds, we were thinking about how to liberate wildlife from human invasion."

The girl paused for a moment and said: "Why did you not defend your ideals in the first place?"

"At the beginning, we boldly defended wildlife for the sake of wildlife. But we failed to popularize our ideals. Later, we started intermixing health issues just to get our voice heard in the media."

"But you reached millions of people including me. I think this is a big success."

"It surely is a big success. But it is your success. We never made a media cover to protect an endangered species. It was all about the lost ones."