Imagine this :

On a really hot day, you travel for miles together and return home for some water,only to find there is not a single drop of water anywhere in your house. Worse, there isn’t a single drop of water anywhere in your entire apartment and you need to wait for  god knows how long until your water sources are replenished.

That’s currently the drought situation in Tamil Nadu.

Not only do we not have clean water, we hardly have any water. We,as a community have converted major water bodies into dump yards. Do you know what’s the worse thing about this? We have no idea we have done all this. This summer has been hard on all of us including plants and animals. Wild elephants and large herbivores in Tamil Nadu reserve forests have lost weight up to 400 kilos over the past three months. The unprecedented drought had also led to the death of elephants, leopards and hundreds of deer.

We should blame ourselves for the extensive damage we have caused,shouldn’t we?

Here at E.F.I, we believe we can be instrumental in bringing about a change in the environment we live in.Over the last ten years, we have been working with 90 ponds/lakes throughout the country. After the initial study and survey,the first phase of restoration includes cleaning up the garbage in and around this area. This is the most vital step in removing the non-degradable waste and the invasive weed. Following which,depending on the orientation of the lake, structured restoration is done.

What is the one thing you as an individual could do along with E.F.I?

Volunteer. Volunteers are the backbone of this organisation. Volunteers strengthen this organisation and it’s effort. Volunteer for our Environment. At the end of 100 years or 1 billion years, nature is the only thing that will be constant. Human beings have already caused enough and more damage in the name of civilisation. There is no way we can fix what we have destroyed. The least we can do is to stop any further damage.

Nature can be an elixir, but only if we allow her to be. We can’t keep feeding her garbage and expecting her to give us flowers in return.

After all,we owe it to mother earth.

 Volunteer with E.F.I for India and her environment.