Page 23 - Cosmos Edition 3

PLANTS HAVE FEELINGS TOO

“It’s mankind’s duty to respect all life, not only animals have feelings but even also
plants and trees.” -Albert Einstein

It does sound absurd and fake, but plants do have feelings. They too feel pain. Mankind
has been dependent on plants for decades now, but, have we ever stopped and thought
about some of the ways we have hurt them. Although, they are also dependent on us for
carbon-dioxide, do they ever harm us in any way? In Hindu relics and according to be-
liefs we find that plants are worshipped. Ancient scriptures mention the Kalpavriksha
and the Chaityavriksha as a deity, which indicates that worshipping trees is indeed an
ancient Indian practice. The Ancient Aryans

worshiped nature. Plants, trees and the
other elements were always revered and
several rituals were connected to them.
There are many trees and plants which
have a more important value than just
providing us with oxygen, food or other es-
sentials.

Most of us are not aware that it has been
scientifically proven that plants have feel-
ings .It is indeed a proud thing to know that, Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose is one of the
most prominent first Indian scientists (from Bengal) who proved by experimentation that
both animals and plants share much in common. He demonstrated that plants are also

sensitive to heat, cold, light, noise and various other external stimuli. He had always
been fascinated by the plant reactions seen in sensitive plants like the mimosa, which,
when irritated, will react with the sudden shedding or shrinking of its leaves.
So, curious about the secret world of plants, Bose switched his attention to investigating

how plants respond to stimuli. His first experiments were conducted with a leaf, a carrot
and a turnip plucked from his garden. To do this, he invented the Cresco graph, an early
oscillating recorder using clockwork gears and a smoked glass plate to measure the
growth and movements of plants in increments as small as 1/100,000 of an inch.

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