Nations should pass laws to preserve any remaining wilderness areas in their natural state even if these areas could be developed for economic gain Write a response in which you discuss your views on the policy and explain your reasoning for the position

Human beings have always been encroaching upon natural wilderness areas and desecrating them for their own economic benifits. This, although, is unquestionably unethical and immoral, has serious ecological ramifications as well. Humans, without any plans for relocation of the wildlife whose home they are invading, clear out acres of forests overnight, leaving the poor animals nowhere to go. We, ironically, find it very surprising when the displaced animals visit us, and often such encounters don't turn out to be very pleasant. There have been numerous cases when destruction of forests, for building highways, has led to animals like deer, and neelcow venturing on roads and causing road accidents. Now one might argue that building a road for increasing connectivity between cities has a great economic advantage. But should one not question, if the advantage comes at any cost, maybe life of animals and those of humans?

Destroying natural habitats for animals has also lead to great losses in ecological biodiversity. Numerous species of flora and fauna are going extinct because of excessive human interventions. Vultures, forming a very crucial link in the food chain for performing the function of decay removal, have become nearly extinct. This has been substantatively linked to fetid carcasses lying around at various places today causing health issues among the younger and older population of the society.

Although we can do the profit/loss calculation for destroying wilderness areas in terms of money, we are not yet ingenious enough to factor in the environmental concerns raised by such incursions. While one may argue that a particular place may yield great economic benifits and animals can just be relocated, how many times have we seen a proper relocation of animals happening? Also, even assuming a proper relocation strategy will be followed, what if someone comes to our doorstep tomorrow asking us to relocate because they want to setup a factory at our place?

Thus we see that, not only it is fundamentally unethical and inconsiderate to encroach upon wilderness locations but this has serious consequences as well which might not be visible to the myopic humanity. Wilderness is best left as it is, and thus the policy preventing humans from taking over the wilderness areas for economic purposes, is strongly supported by me.