A STUDY of man's association with animals is fascinating. Once he knew docile animals from ferocious predators, he must have started attempts at domesticating some, even training them for specific tasks. With time the muscle power of animals began to be increasingly exploited to serve human ends. This substantially aided man's attempts at conquering Nature.

Centuries on, emerged the machine, surpassing the strength of humans and animals. The Industrial Revolution altered the patterns of human lives markedly. One would expect that advances in technology would render earlier practices obsolete. Curiously, this does not seem to have happened in a big way.

Even decades into the computer revolution, we find age-old methods being in operation in Asian and South American countries, not to mention Africa.

This is particularly so in agricultural operation. And so too with modes of transport. One example is Ethiopia where, even today, donkeys are the main carriers of materials.

Greek tourists to Albania were amused to find a donkey with a taxi sign fixed on its head.

But, interestingly, even advanced countries seem to find some of these archaic ways effective. For instance, some time ago, goats were herded on to land, close to the San Francisco airport, to graze on the dry grass and thus reduce fire hazards from it. In another instance, in an Italian town near Venice, the local authorities preferred donkeys to tractor-mowers to clear the grass. The move was lauded, as it substantially reduced cost. And oddly enough, China has been using ducks to prevent the plague of locusts from damaging crops. The rationale? Ducks have a large appetite for locusts!

Surely, these methods are not as innovative as the Uttar Pradesh Government's idea of converting a dacoit-infested jungle into a lion safari park to beat the ingenuity of dacoits!

K. Gopalan

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