This is a poem about over-population. When I was a child, the total population of the sub-continent was around 400 million. A few years ago India’s population alone had reached the 1000 million mark, and this was excluding the populations of Bangladesh and Pakistan. The total sub-continental population is now well on its way to being around 1.5 billion people. The planet is witnessing an exponential growth of human numbers in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and South America. As a result the changes being forced upon the natural environment and its finite resources are frightening to watch. Unless the growth in human numbers is checked, and the trend reversed somehow, the consequences for the planet and its future will be catastrophic.

Aabadi is one of my many poems in which I have expressed deep misgivings about the future. As a poet, environment is at the very heart of my long-term concerns.

Click the link below to read the poem (2 pages)

Aabadi