Foreword to ISLAND POEMS by Ronnie Patel (Lotus Print: ISBN 81-88451-02-9 (C) Ronnie Patel)

Several of these poems were written over two years on a coral island. They reflect a personal philosophy of splendid isolation and romance with nature, not uncommonly shared with many. But, the main difference is that not all who share the philosophy have had the same opportunity as I have had, to drop the life styles of mainland and live out on a paradise island for a considerable length of time; experience its marvellous moods.

The decision to compile this collection as a message for ecology and preservation of nature with the rather esoteric appeal of poetry than the scholastic one of prose and statistics, of which there are quite a few eminent works already, reflects not only the significance of the subject, but also my growing compulsion to expose the beauty of the island of Bangaram in the Lakshadweep to a small, but sensitive readership that would respond to its soul strongly and feel itself committed to natures preservationin as near its original form as possible.

Islands such as the Lakshadweep are a unique legacy that has come down to usunwittingly well preserved; so much so, that it is now incumbent upon us to pass it on equally well preserved, but wittingly, informed as we are today of the threat to the fine ecosystems byunchecked progress and development.

Most of what we have done to paradisiacal locations on Earth in the name of development is quite shameful: unchecked deforestation with vested interests, introduction of foreign flora and fauna, despoiling of marine life through molestation and pollution, intrusion of mainland mores in entertainment, and architectural fantasies with garden landscapes; all couched in commercial vulgarity and exploitation.

Beauty and grandeur of mans craft can never surpass that of nature, nor mans needs in the long run be fulfilled by its abuse.

We have not many opportunities left to preserve clusters of natural beauty such as these islands, still innocent and unspoilt by the savage marks of civilised man. Equipped with the knowledge we now have and despite the awakening calls of the scientifically concerned communities, if we were to go on brutalising virgin territories, then we will have least deserved such gifts of nature, and the perpetrators of that crime will have least deserved a place in all that is noble of mankind.