India, May 4 -- Armed with a "legal" deed for properties underwritten by an administration which cleared the jungle, homo sapiens are convinced the land they occupy ethically and lawfully belongs to them. But the land upon which they had built a house/ office/ school was the property of wild creatures since aeons. No one sought their assent before eviction nor were they paid land acquisition compensation in cash or kind! These creatures are the victims of the most ruthless land mafia that evolution will ever know. Monica Sharma from Panchkula's Sector 28 is a financial sector professional. She was out with her daughter and husband taking a drive after dinner to relieve her child's examination stress. The Sharmas glimpsed sambars and neelgai roving for food in a landscape with desolate isles of jungle. It was a night dominated by Frankenstein buildings and lights glaring like an interrogation cell. Sharma was stricken with anxiety: these creatures faced the hazard of hit-and-run collisions. "My eyes were moist when a deer with magnificent antlers appeared unbidden like a gift next to our car. It was hauntingly beautiful --- looking curiously into our eyes and with an innocence into my camera. It seemed unaware of the dangers of city traffic," Sharma told this writer. In those moments of a fleeting encounter with a vanishing wilderness, the horrific truth of her urban roots struck Sharma. "We were encroaching upon their land. It was not just one glance from this one animal. It was the look of an entire race of creatures on the verge of their land being snatched and taken away. As city dwellers, we are accustomed to the sights of concrete houses, shops, factories and malls. Much before we erected these so-called markers of development, the earth belonged to animals who were the original inhabitants. We took over their land, their shelter and food for an economy that does not complement nature's currency. Their loss of habitat, their desolate search for sustenance, the risks they are exposed to will leave a tale of despair and annihilation for bio-diversity," said Sharma. Sharma ended her soliloquy with a feeling that visits few of us: "I felt species loneliness --- a profound human sadness that stems from an estrangement from nature."...