The Law of the Jungle

Some creative works have a timeless impact on us. They are so basic in identifying what’s right and wrong in our midst, its value in enabling us to understand who we are and what we are will always provide us with good food for thought. One such work is Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 work, ‘The Jungle Book’. ‘Talking’ animals of the Indian jungles, a child adopted by wolves, their ways good and bad, techniques they use for survival, the moral lessons and political satire makes Kipling’s work not only a good read (good viewing later as film and cartoon presentations) but serve as lessons to learn from, any time and every time we humans face crises.

The same must be said of ‘Vana Potha’ authored by my university’s chancellor in the 60s. We affectionately nicknamed him ‘Yaka’, shortened from Yakkaduwe Pagnarama Hamuduruwo. Influenced by the several Jathaka stories and Kipling’s work, he wrote ‘Vana Potha’, a lovely localised version of the animal world’s travails and doings, more as a sharp presentation of moral lessons for us humans.

“Now this is the Law of the Jungle - as old and as true as the sky;

And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it, must die.

As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back;

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack”, is how Kipling laid that law.

Human wolves

The recent photographs we saw of the cluster of ‘Jeeps’ rushing towards a leopard sited at Yala at breakneck speeds, told us a sad and shocking tale of our greed, uncaring ways and the scant disregard of the ‘rule of law’ that should prevail within that national park environment.

This is not only seen at Yala but also at Uda Walawa, Minneriya during the gathering and more recently on whale and dolphin watching tours in the ocean, where the pull of the greed for the dollar or the rupee seem to make most behave like animals themselves. Protected areas and parks were established by us humans to ensure that the ‘packs’ of animals in the wild are shielded from human wolves and allowed to thrive in their natural environment, without placing undue pressure on them.

At the back of all of this of course, is the ‘value’ the wild and its life bring to us as shared show-pieces and exhibits.

Our tourism thrives on showing off our wildlife and the dollars and rupees therein go to make the statistics of arrivals and earnings of foreign exchange and collections at the gates of the parks. Yet, there is little that is done to ensure that there is true protection for the animals within the parks.

We hear of underpaid trackers being employed as perpetual ‘volunteers’, deafness of policy makers and officials in addressing issues such as non-remittance of revenues from the gate back for maintenance of the parks, of bad park management practises, flouting of existing rules and regulation for managing over-visitation, exceeding carrying capacities in the use of vehicles entering the parks and shielding of wrong doing through political influence and patronage.

Sadly we also learn of the sheer apathy shown by tourism and environmental authorities who indeed should take on strong guardianship roles in safeguarding resources that support their own existence.

Survival of the fittest

They seem to take the easy way out of palming off responsibility to the officials of the Wildlife Department with an occasional letter written to express concern or a workshop held to discuss it. Records of these go into office files, to later serve to cover their own backs.

‘Let not the law of the jungle prevail’, is a saying usually used to describe unruliness and disorder. Yet, there is more to it and that denotes power. Power not only of the mighty and brute strength of the individual, where every person will act for himself in an environment where anything goes and survival of the strongest and the fittest will be the outcome, much like the various crises we see created in our midst on the global front as well. Kipling recognises the value of not only being a strong wolf, but also of the strength of being one with the pack, epitomising the role of a strong leader in protecting the community and/or society that he/she belongs to.

In the ‘Jungle Book’, the Law of the Jungle, which by far is the oldest law in the world - has with its code made as perfect as time and custom can make it, designed to meet any imminent danger that may befall the ‘Jungle People’. Kipling had, ‘Mowgli’, the boy raised with cub wolves and spent a great part of his life in the Seeonee Wolf-Pack, learning the Law from ‘Baloo’, the Brown Bear. It was Baloo who told him, when the boy grew impatient at the constant orders he had to obey, that the Law was like the giant creeper, because it dropped across every one's back and no one could escape. “When thou hast lived as long as I have, little brother, thou wilt see how all the Jungle obeys at least one Law. And that will be no pleasant sight,” said Baloo.

As the story goes, “this talk went in at one ear and out at the other, for a boy who spends his life eating, sleeping and making merry, does not worry about anything till danger actually stares him in the face. But, one year, Baloo's words came true, and Mowgli saw all the Jungle working under that ‘Law of Nature’.”

“It began when the winter Rains failed almost entirely, and Ikki, the Porcupine, meeting Mowgli in a bamboo-thicket, told him that the wild yams were drying up. Everybody knew that Ikki is ridiculously fastidious in his choice of food, and will eat nothing but the very best and ripest. So Mowgli laughed and said, “What is that to me?” “Not much now,” said Ikki, “but later we shall see. Is there any more diving into the deep rock-pool below the Bee-Rocks, Little Brother?”

In my mind, Sri Lanka’s ‘deep rock pool below the Bee-Rocks’, are our natural, social, cultural and heritage assets we still have in abundance. In a modern society, where the Rule of Law must replace the Law of the Jungle, we need to ensure that we take good care of these assets, for without them we would be worthless.

Natural assets

Within the domain of the Laws of the Jungle, Kipling had defined the rights of the members of the wolf pack as follows:

“Cub-Right is the right of the Yearling. From all of his Pack he may claim Full-gorge when the killer has eaten; and none may refuse him the same. Lair-Right is the right of the Mother. From all of her year she may claim one haunch of each kill for her litter, and none may deny her the same. Cave-Right is the right of the Father-to hunt by himself for his own. He is freed of all calls to the Pack; he is judged by the Council alone. Because of his age and his cunning, because of his gripe and his paw, in all that the Law leaveth open, the word of the Head Wolf is Law.” He then declared “Now these are the Laws of the Jungle, and many and mighty are they; but the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and the hump is-Obey!”

These are the attributed rights in the domain of the law of the jungle. Yet in the domain of the rule of law these rights take a different form and they are defined in relation to the common good, fair access to opportunity and effort, meritocracy, equality, freedom, justice, transparency and accountability.

Our fervent hope is for the rule of law to be firmly established not only in relation to our efforts in protecting our natural assets, but also in all other spheres in human activity; global and local, by nations and their leaders, where it is often subjugated by the dominant and the powerful, working with self-interest, mal-intent and practice.

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