Save The Wild

Sometime back, three friends, Vipul, Aditya and of course myself came together and decided to start something of an NGO that deals with helping out the animals and natural endowments of our beautiful city of Mumbai and beyond. Since we all shared a common love for nature and animals it was a no brainer that we definitely wanted to do something about it.

Reactive critics and inactive onlookers are the very reason why most of us Mumbaikars have never even been to the Borivali National Park and the Byculla zoo is turning into a mid-city Marine drive with more and more couples being seen making out behind a tree. Come on people! Look around! There are so many wonderful animals that you can learn of...or is there? Most of these animals are undernourished and are but a shadow of their awesome wild counterparts. The lion's literally a pussy and the hyena's forgotten to laugh. Quite a lot of them are caged in smaller areas than is required for them to comfortably move about. Some visitors harass the poor caged animals simply to see them react.
At one such instance, I overheard two twenty-something year olds saying to each other, "Arre dude, bandar kuch kar hi nahi raha hai. Ek patthar phek na. Dekhte hain kya hota hai."
Translated, "Hey dude, the monkeys aren't doing anything. Try throwing a stone in. Lets see what happens."

Is that really the state of our society? These two weren't even the street-urchin-turned-wannabe kind either. Two well-to-do educated adults talking that way, is that even rational on their part? Are they actually THAT bored in life that they'll hurt a trapped underfed creature just to see it move? I mean what the F@¤$!
Few weeks back, a juvenile hippo died at the same zoo because proper and timely veterinarian treatment was not administered. The only thing that I saw was a small article somewhere and it's mention on the radio, which seems to be the only medium that's proactive today.

Someone needs to stand up, rather, all of us need to stand up and take notice of everyone we live with and share our space with, and that includes animals, wait, ESPECIALLY ANIMALS. With our NGO Species Foundation, we aim to do exactly the same. We shall be working towards social awareness with regards to the fauna around us as well as some of the majestic creatures that we have access to experience only if we take notice. Our main audience will be college students since they're the most responsive to such things and are more proactive.

Species has yet to be registered, but of course, for it to work I'll need all the support I can get. There's gonna be loads of activities we'll be conducting as part of our awareness program that'll include weekend hikes or overnight trips to wildlife reserves. Anyone who wishes to join us is definitely welcome.

So guys, please help me out by spreading the word, if possible, joining in the effort and doing your little bit to save the wild.

Cheers.
-S-