The wounds that never soothe

After 25 years of that fateful day at Chernobyl, the chilling trepidation of nuclear disaster still echoes from the ghost town, and never settles to die down in the memory of human civilization. Thousands people died instantly after the disaster, millions fled away after being exposed to high degree radioactive emission and those who survived the death trap of this potentially calamitous revolutionary technological progress are still suffering from the pangs orchestrated by mindless pursuits of mankind negotiated for small comforts of society – the comforts that never reach to those people who for all splendors of human development are forced to bury their lives under the perfidious design of the ruling class.

The spirit of human settlements that once dotted around Chernobyl will never resurrect from that epochal nightmare. The survivors even shiver today when they brood over the consequences of a diabolic nuclear disaster that the mankind can never forget and forgive those people who for all their boundless human greed put the entire human civilization at the brink of danger. Even today the newborn babies inherit the curse of dangerous technology. Physically deformed, mentally agonized, these children of post-Chernobyl fallout are the reflection of our imbecilic hankering for technological progress that has always posed myriads of threats to the sustenance of nature. We forget for a moment that the fascinating advantages of a hugely risk-ridden technology cant overwhelm the piles of danger that it intrinsically bears within.

After 25 years we are still crestfallen. The recent meltdown of nuclear plants at Fukushima, triggered by a series of potentially catastrophic earthquakes and tsunami, has again posed serious doubts on the safety of a hazardous technology that many duplicitous protagonists vouch for its economic importance in a world of acute energy crunch. But the moot question here that slaps on our face is: Can we bargain with a crocodile to get rid of a tiger? This is a catch-22 situation. The imminent dangers of climatic changes due to toxic effluents of fossil fuels used in thermal power plants are equally threatening to the sustenance of this world. Now is the time for a serious contemplation. We must engage collectively to think about a third alternative which could be pro-nature, pro-mankind, and sustain the continuous human progress.