News has come from Indonesia of an expedition to explore the Foja Mountains. The area has no human habitation. The local tribes don't go into it because they consider it to be sacred. A team of dedicated scientists went there - after seven years of negotiations with the local tribesmen - on an expedition of discovery. Discover they did. Several species of birds, amphibians, marsupials and other animals were discovered, or rediscovered. Species known about and thought to be extinct were found. Species never known to mankind were found. Most of them had one thing in common - their total lack of fear of human beings because they had never come across them before. Beautiful pictures of exotic animals have been published in newspapers across the world. It seems that the Foja mountains are truly a Garden of Eden, unspoiled, untouched, not yet fouled by the march of human progress.
Notice the word YET.
How long before the tourism trade gets hold of the idea of "safaris" to the Foja Mountains so that ordinary people can see these beautiful animals "in the wild"? I have already heard it mentioned on radio news reports.
I have hopes that this place, one of the very few remaining untouched wildernesses in this world of ours, will be left to be what it is - beautiful, untouched, unspoiled by the destructive forces of man's touch. Yes, it would be good to learn about the flora and fauna. Yes, scientific research can and perhaps should be done. But this must be strictly controlled. There must be strict regulation of who may enter and how often. Otherwise the area will become spoiled, just like the Himalayas where it is almost like a day-trip to go to the top of Everest and trample everything underfoot on the way.
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