Clean Dream
Recently,
I visited Karnala Bird Sanctuary on a school picnic. It’s a very good bird
sanctuary and many migratory birds can be found here. The other things
abundantly found here are food wrappers and garbage. We were walking in the
jungle and suddenly, our attention was attracted by colourful wrappers that had
been lying there for many months, or maybe years!
If
these wrappers are burnt, it will harm the forest and forest life and cause
soil degradation. People don’t understand this. They come here to enjoy but I
don’t understand what kind of enjoyment this is.
My
friend and I had some carry bags with us. We saw our classmates throwing
plastic bottles. The bottles could have been reused to fill water, but it is
considered to ‘low-class’ to reuse the things. If EVS (Environmental Studies)
students behave this way, what about people who are illiterate? I told my
friend that I couldn’t let it continue. “I’m going to collect all the garbage I
see on our path,” I said. She agreed.
We
collected all the wrappers, cola cans, plastic bags, metal tins, papers, etc. I
was shocked to find that many of the objects in the garbage were recyclable and
reusable. We threw the garbage into dustbins.
Many
students continued to throw the wrappers and bottles after using. As I asked
why, their reply was, “WHO CARES?” Only two students participated in this
project. We just cleaned a little portion of the huge jungle. And the clean
path will last only for a day. I didn’t even find any institution or
organisation for cleaning and maintaining the forest. Many people must have
gone there and again the forest would be back to dirty…
What
will the next generation have to suffer? Isn’t anybody interested in cleaning
our environment? Do we just have to watch people polluting? Isn’t there any way
to stop this? I want to do something for today and also for tomorrow.
-Sayee Girdhari, 13 years, STD IX, SBOA High School.
