The Planet

Raj & few of his friends were space scientists. Right from childhood all of them were classmates & surprisingly all of them wanted to become space scientists. Through hard work and determination, all of them achieved their target & they were so lucky that finally, they became space scientists in India. What an honourable life! An opportunity to explore space & its secrets. One day the government of India decided to send some of its scientists to some other planet to explore the possibility of life over there. Now, this was nothing new. Indian space organization is constantly looking for life on other planets for many years. This experiment was also a part of it. 

On the decided date Raj & his co-scientists sat in their spacecraft & proceed towards outer space. What a fantastic journey. Revolving Planets, glowing stars, and vast galaxies & the spacecraft steadily moved into an unknown world with unexpected surprises. While moving they saw a planet that was looking beautiful. Full of greenery & some light glowing over there. Raj said to his co-scientists, "See friends, there is some light coming from that planet. I think we found a planet where humans live. Let us land on that planet." All of them landed on that planet. Walking ahead they saw it was some king's empire. But it was a bit strange. The animals could walk on 2 feet like humans. They were wearing dresses like humans & they were having their king also. A big lion, with a crown on his head, of course walking & talking like humans. 

Suddenly a man with the head of a wolf & dressed like a human came in front of them. "Hello friends, may I help you." All the scientists were shocked to see him. A wolf dressed up & walking like humans, talking in their own language. Fearfully they said, "Sir, we are from a different planet called Earth. I hope you don't mind. We are space scientists on an expedition to explore other planets." The wolf said, "That is good. You are our guests. Come, let me introduce you to my king." The wolf took them to his king's court. Beautiful palace, covered with gold all around. The king was standing with his face behind him. The wolf-man said, "Maharaj, these are our guests." The King turned back and saw them. All the scientists were surrounded. He was a big-sized ape with a crown over his head. Leaving his singhasan, he moved towards those scientists.

"Ha, ha, ha, bloody Humans. You are not guests, you are enemies & today I will tell you how we treat our enemies." The king's soldiers tied all of them with iron chains. They were fearful and unable to speak a single word. "Do you see videos on your internet that people have seen some strange creatures near some village or mountain?" Raj said, "Yes". The king said, "Ha, Ha, Ha! We keep coming to your planet often. Just like you came here to explore another planet, we also came to your planet with the same intention. But we saw something pathetic over there." Raj asked, "What?" The King said, "You people have created many deserts on your planet by cutting down trees for your benefit. You throw industrial waste daily in beautiful rivers & lakes & kill aquatic

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animals. You, people, kill animals mercilessly, sometimes for their bones & sometimes for their skin & sometimes for their horns to decorate your houses. You people kidnap innocent animals from the forest, put them inside the cage & take them to the zoo where you & your useless children teas them, laugh at them & throw stones at them. Your scientists kill innocent animals in your laboratories in the name of creative experiments & for this you people give awards to each other saying that this great scientist has made a new discovery. 

You people keep getting awards for killing our race. But now we will receive awards after killing your race. The one who kills 10,000 of you humans in a year will be declared the Animal of the Year."

Raj was silently listening to the king. Raj knew he is speaking the pure truth. Raj has never thought that somewhere someone in this universe is preparing a big army to give human beings the punishment for their sins. Very politely he said to the king, "Sir you are right. We sincerely deserve punishment for our sins. But one thing is sure Sir, we all are not the same. In the same community, there are forest conservators & DFOs who are protecting animals & trees in difficult forest locations. There are environmentalists who are daily coming up with a new plan to protect dying species of animals and plants on our planet. Government authorities are consistently urging citizens to plant one tree daily. 

Many schools and professional colleges take their students on tours to beautiful places on our planet where they see beautiful mountains, streams, rivers, animals and bird species. We do it so that growing up, the kids should realize the importance of wildlife protection & nature conservation. 

Various poets & writers on our planet have written many books & poems depicting the beauty of rivers, birds, animals & environment so that common people should start loving these things & respect the beauty of nature. There are many painters, who, time and again display beautiful paintings of nature made by them in exhibitions so that people can realise the importance of nature & its protection.

Sir, I am not saying that you are wrong. Our people are definitely disturbing wildlife but I assure you the count of the people involved in animal welfare is comparatively very high."

The king was happy & satisfied listening to the words of Raj. He said, "I am happy to hear your explanation. I am happy that good people are also there on your planet. It's an honour you came to our planet. Be our guest. Stay here as long as you need." 

Raj was happy that the king was satisfied. He & his team enjoyed a lot for a few days on that planet and one day they returned. While travelling back to earth on the spaceship, Raj was thinking, "Till now our planet was having a reputation of being the only planet in the universe that can support every kind of life- humans, animals, birds, trees everything. 

But now this reputation has gone. Now we are known as destroyers of life."