SAVE THE EARTH

Plant trees else we’ll have none to sit under-----

The Earth has only 10 years left for undoing some damage which Man has done to it but alas! Total Government apathy and mere lip service to environment provide little hope for any change. Some school kids tried to make a difference by adopting a part of the ridge at Vande Matram Marg , enthused with the passion of bringing to life an area which had become a dumpimg ground for Malba . Small hands cleared the sides of the road of polythene bags, stones, and rubble, leveled it, spread sweet mud and manure, dug pits and planted saplings. It took almost 5 years for the plants to grow to a height of 5 to 6 feet. The sides were neatly lined with bricks painted red, the other side with boulders which were removed for plantation purposes and relocated to make a boundary.

 Labour bore fruit, the passersby could now see Neem, bamboo, kaner, Jamun trees dancing with the breeze but little did they know that hawkers would take advantage of the area cleared by them. To their horror, they saw the coconut, watermelon sellers removing the brick lining and creating platforms with the bricks, for decorating their goods, to woo their customers. Not only that, the shells of coconuts were strewn every where, choking the saplings, mocking at the audacity of Salwanians who had dared to give a healing touch to Mother Nature. The sides of the ridge soon got dotted with tents, the humble abode of these citizens, but, perplexed, the kids asked “Are there no rules, law and order in our country? Can one put up a shop where ever he wants to?  Can the Police do nothing about it?”

Though they had planted trees they did not own the place, and they certainly couldn’t shoo away the hawkers and remain on guard 24 hours a day. With pain, they noticed that the neat sides of the road had attracted other entrepreneurs, more enterprising, who started selling clothes and shoes transported in cars and vans conveniently parked right inside the leveled ridge, paying no heed to the trees which were being crushed under their wheels.  

A few days ago, when I was passing by, did I see a police van also parked in the same area. My heart reached out to the kids who had labored hard to return the pristine glory to the Ridge. What message were we giving them? What example were we setting for them?  I felt  ashamed of being the ‘I’ in ‘India’ and I decided to do something – if I can’t plant a tree I can at least appeal to all concerned to act when there is time , to react when one ought to. Wake up those who are sleeping to raise their voice against this out rage of destroying what the little ones had made. To let them live their dream of the world being a beautiful place to live in with good, kind people, with hope in their hearts of a green tomorrow. But we all had remained passive observers to this systematic destruction of the Ridge-none tried to protect the trees planted by them leave alone appreciate what they had done.

Are you there Madam Dixit, our popular CM, an environment enthusiast? May be, May be, you could pull up the concerned authorities, the police, the Forest Department and other  officials for this apathy and make the little ones   have faith in us, the custodians of their future. We, after all owe it to them!! Don’t we? 

Vandana Puri

Pricipal