What would our life be like if we could see, but not discern? If we could hear, but not listen, and if we could touch, but not feel? How would we experience life if we could taste and smell, but not savour? What would we be like, as a species and as individuals, if we could sense everything, yet make sense of nothing? Would our life be the same? Would we be the same? Would we even be human?

Image courtesy: Kalyan Varma (www.kalyanvarma.net)

… This post first appeared in the NCF blog, EcoLogic, on 11 May 2010. Read more in The Wild Heart of India: Nature and Conservation in the City, the Country, and the Wild.