The Protectors

There was an Industrialist named Raj Pratap. He was a corporate person but a greedy one. Every corporate organization wants to expand its business, but Raj Pratap wanted to expand its empire ethically and unethically, both ways. To establish a big factory, he wanted a big land area which was not available in the city where he was living as it was already very crowded. But at a very small distance from the city, there was a forest area by the name Aranyapur, which was a vast area completely covered with tall trees, gardens and wild animals. Raj Pratap was eyeing that zone since many months, but he could not do anything because it was strictly protected by government authorities. Raj Pratap once took his driver and few friends in a jeep and entered that forest area as a tourist to explore that zone. 

Entering Aranyapur, Raj Pratap was stunned to see the beauty of the place. Tall green trees, beautiful rivers and streams, multi-colored birds and animals, sunlight coming from behind the tree and falling on the water of lake, making the lake glitter like gold. Beautiful voices of singing birds, beautiful deers running with the speed of light, group of dark pink lotus above the surface of the lake, looking like a vast garden of flowers, hiding the lake completely. Raj Pratap felt like it is a journey of lifetime. He was so mesmerized by the beauty of the forest that for few minutes the idea of cutting down trees was gone out of his mind. One of his assistants said, "Sir, we are ready with all the equipment. We are just waiting for your orders to cut down all the trees and prepare a big land for establishment of your factory." Listening to the assistant's words, Raj Pratap came back to his senses and said,"Yes, let us go back to my office. We will make a plan." 

Raj Pratap and his team went to their office. There Raj Pratap immediately called a meeting of all his employees and said,"See friends. I have ordered all the machinery to cut down that forest area. Without any noise and without making any long plan, we will just go to that area tomorrow at 4:00 AM and without wasting a second, my machines will start cutting all the forest will full speed. Before the forest dwellers realize what's going on, we will cut entire jungle. If even one forest dweller comes to know about our plan, all his associates will get alert. So just do what I say." As planned, Raj Pratap and his entire team reached that forest are with all the equipment. The villagers were sleeping. Raj Pratap gave signal to his team. Multiple bulldozers appeared in few seconds and started cutting down trees with fast speed. The villages heard the pinching sound. Before they could understand anything, Raj Pratap and his team were cutting down forest with great speed. Villagers were shocked to see their homes getting destroyed. One of the villages said, "Why are you destroying this beautiful forest? It is our home. Where will our children go? Please stop it. Its a crime, its a sin. Mother nature will never forgive you." Raj Pratap Said,"Ha,Ha,Ha! Foolish villagers. I will make a factory here. You foolish people, you are not broad minded. You are just wasting you life in this forest. We don't need people like you. We need growth and development."

Hearing these words, villagers were assured that crazy Raj Pratap will kill them. One of the forest dwellers said,"Come on friends. Let us show our power to these useless city people. Attack." Hearing these words, a sudden adrenaline rush came inside every villager. Immediately they broke branches of the trees and aiming them towards Raj's team, started attacking everyone. Just with one blow of the stick, Raj's team members went unconscious. Multiple villages climbed the trees and started jumping over the heads of all them. Some of the villagers started throwing multiple coconuts on the faces of Raj Pratap's team. Raj was shocked. With in few minutes all the members of Raj's team went unconscious. Raj Pratap was terrified seeing the courage and bravery of forest people. 

Sarpanch of the village came near Raj. Raj said, "Sir please forgive me. I will go back with my team. Please sir." Sarpanch gave a terrifying look to Raj but did not say anything. He said to his team, "Come on friends, leave them. Let's go." As the sarpanch moved back, the cunning Raj took a knife from his back and was about to kill the sarpanch. But before that, one of the villagers threw a javelin towards Raj that penetrated his body. Raj fell down. The angry sarpanch said to that villager," What did you do? We are not killers. We were just protecting our land." The villager said, "Sir this man could have killed you. They are not good people Sir." Sarpanch said, "Yes, they are not good people. But we are not like them." saying these words sarpanch lifted Raj on his shoulders and took him to his house. He took out javelin from Raj's body. Raj cried out of pain. Sarpanch said," Don't worry, you will not die. I will save you." Sarpanch called his wife. Sarpanch's wife covered the blood coming out of Raj's body with a clean, thick cloth. Sarpanch immediately took leaves from few trees, crushed them and squeezed them to extract juice. Then he put that juice on Raj's wound and covered it with banana leaf. Sarpanch said, "Just take rest. Within one hour your wound will recover and the pain will be gone. "Raj was made to rest on sarpanch's bead. Sarpanch's wife gave him milk with turmeric. Raj drank the milk and felt relaxed. Sarpanch's wife said to Raj, "Don't worry, you will be perfectly fine. Please take rest for few hours." Raj thanked sarpanch's wife and slept for 5 hours. 

Waking up after 5 hours, Raj was feeling so fresh and energetic as if nothing happened. He came to Sarpanch and bent down in his feet. Touching his feet he said, "Sarpanch Ji. Please forgive me. I wanted to kill you, but you saved my life. I am feeling ashamed of myself. I am such a useless dirty man. You please kill me. I deserved to be killed. Kill me sir, kill me." The sarpanch said, "Raj Pratap, I am not a doctor. I saved you by the extract of the leaves of these trees. So actually, your life was saved by a tree leaf. That is why we call it mother nature. Just like a mother cares for her child, similarly trees, mountains and rivers care for us. We are the children of mother nature. But today, we have become so greedy that we want to kill our own mother for money." Raj realized his mistake. 

On suggestion of sarpanch, he spent 7 days with those villagers. During these 7 days, the mixed up very well with the villagers. Sarpanch's little daughter used to play with him everyday. He used to tell stories to the all village children everyday. The villagers used to smile looking all the children sitting around Raj all the time, caring for him and listening fairy tales from him. After 7 days Raj was fine. He packed up his bag and was about to leave when a little girl stopped him and said, "Raj, please try to come once again. Nobody plays with me. They all are working all the time." Raj bent down his knees, hugged the little girl and said,"Sure I will come. i will keep coming here." Looking at sarpanch with folded hands,he said, "Thank you very much srapanch ji. Your javelin took out all the impure blood from my body. Thank you very much." The sarpanch was standing with folded hands, smiling.