The Green Enthusiast

Go stand there , Rathin. From today onwards you are in the green house,'. I went and stood in the line where the green house students were assembled. That day was my first day in school and as my father dropped me off my new teacher Abhishek sir took my charge and allotted me the green house.

For the next decade which I spent in my school the Midland High I represented the green house.

Slowly, green became my favourite colour. I represented my green house in all the major sporting activities wearing the green apparel.

Even outside school my choice of clothes like T-shirt etc.my fancy of colours ended with green.

Later on in life when I entered the professional world, the colour green played a significant role though it was not too much highlighted. Every sphere of life was not too dependent on colour though. I worked as a chartered accountant and for audit purposes green coloured ink was the mode of instruction.

Then I got a chance to audit an NGO, who were involved in the area of environmental emission. This group was applying to the home ministry for giving them permission to accept foreign funding. For this clearance an auditors certification was mandatory. I and my firm was lucky to be selected to audit the company and issue them a clearance certificate on the basis of which they would apply for permission.

After seeking the permission from the department yearly auditor certificate was necessary as per the guidelines of the offshore funding.

So indirectly I got involved with the activities of this group.

The objectives of this group was to educate the general populace of the country to make them aware of dangers of climate change and find ways to avert it and make people aware of methods to switch to environment friendly fuel and work in tandem with nature for it's safe guarding and identity potential wrong doers. This group got the moniker of green activists and I became one of them from a green enthusiast as I was earlier fondly known as.

The subsequent years myself along with this group ' The Green Challengers' got to do some pioneering work in environment safety. We helped identify illegal construction and illegal builders in ecosensitive areas. As a result we became deadly enemies of some vested interests groups and organisations.

Once while traveling through thick forests on high hills we were ambushed by a group of animal poachers. Only few days ago we had got few poachers arrested who were involved in the smuggling of elephant tusks for ivory. Their remaining group stormed down over us in revenge. We had to face their back lash. There were five of us who were returning to base camp in a jeep. The rebel group blocked our route with big felled tree trunks. We helplessly had to stop. Immediately this group stormed over us and took us captive.

Then with our hands held high we were ordered to march further deep into the thick jungle. There we were put in a wooden cottage and locked inside. As there was no network tower we could not connect with the outside world. But this was however facilitated by our enemies bringing their own end.

As this warring group was specifically equipped with powerful telecom systems, they connected with the authorities. They informed them that we had been captured and kept as hostages and would be released if their group members were made free from all charges.

We couldn't make out what our law keepers had decided . But we spent many a days in captivity. All day long a bunch of guards would patrol around our jungle prison and blocked all our routes of escape. We remained starving as the food they provided was of poor quality and we suspected that they could be laced with intoxicants.

However, a few days later we surprisingly, were rescued by a herd of wild elephants. Seeing the elephants, the guards deserted their patrolling posts and ran away. Then after the pachyderm pack left, we worked from inside on the door hatch and opened it after little struggle. Then our group of five stayed together and trudged along in deeper forest for next day and a half. We were tired and hungry and couldn't move ahead. So we lay down to rest and introspect our next course of action. We all fell down in deep slumber. How long we were there was difficult to tell. But we woke up when something wet and soft was touching our faces.

Then we found three to four sniffer dogs were touching and licking our faces with their wet tongues and nose. A bunch of people in the rescue team had discovered us in the forest.

With help we soon reached civilisation and after few days of hospital care we recovered.

Then our story was all over the press and the government felicitated us for our bravery and our good work in saving the environment.