Nowadays we say that we are environmentally conscious humans and we know what environment mean to us and what our duties and obligations are towards our environment. Then the question that very often arises in my mind is that why there are so many environmental issues like for example, some of the places we find around us are clean and we can say that it is a healthy environment. In contrast to this there are places which have very dirty and filthy surroundings like the slum areas and these places give the picture of poor environment.

To a common man environment means the place or surroundings where one lives but literally it means land, air, water on which plants, animals and human beings live. Now the question that very often arises in my mind is how important environment to us? The answer to this question is that we need environment for recreation, tourism or for anything that we perform on our mother earth. Proper environment is also is also for our youngsters to live and breed so that they grow up into healthy, wealthy and wise citizens.

Moreover, if we are not conscious with our activities towards environment then someday we or our future generation have to pay a heavy price for it. This reminds me of a story which was told to me when I was a kid attending school and the story had such a impact in my mind that it is still afresh in my mind. The story which I am going to tell you now is about a small village where the villagers had everything except plants or forest. They used to feel ashamed and grumbled about the fact that the other villages nearby them were blessed with this bounty of nature except their village. They did everything possible to grow plants in their village but every time they tried they proved failure in their attempt.

Then one fine day, the priest of the village saw in his dream a small sapling (plant) speaking to him that it would like to come in his village only on the condition that he and his villagers take care of him. The priest agreed and to his surprise the next season they saw shrubs growing into trees and trees multiplying into orchards and jungles. As was promised the villagers used to take care of the trees and the forest and if they used to cut a tree for making hut and furniture they used to plant another three. Things were going on well for sometime but soon after the villagers forgot about their promise and started cutting trees at an alarming rate for their own use and even for their business. This continued for sometime and finally the end result was that the village turned into a place of famine. Soon there was scarcity of water, fresh air, food and they were almost dying. But they now realized their mistake and started praying to the almighty God and performed rituals so that they might get another chance. This year in the monsoon they kept and stored enough rain water and started planting trees and took great care of it. Soon their village was once again blessed with rich forests with fruits and flowers on them. They thanked God for giving them another chance to survive. The trees were all dancing with joy as if to say the villagers thanks for realizing their importance.

So, see friends, if you go through this story there is a lesson for us also and we should never try to endulge ourselves doing the same mistake which these villagers did and that would be the key of our success and we would be able to create and breed in a healthy environment and give our future generation a chance so that someday they could be proud of our work and creativity.

Thanks!