Nothing makes Akhina Mohan more furious than the mistreatment of our environment. But she never had the courage to stand up and speak. She was pushed out of her silence only by the 2018 Kerala floods. The relief work made her understand that her actions could make a difference! Therefore, she is starting “alarmo”, an action group driven by children, inspired by the belief that our environment can be saved.
As a child, I was in love with the big Tamarind tree in front of my house. My parents forbid me to eat tamarind, so I found a place behind the tree to secretly enjoy the sweet and sour fruit. This tamarind tree was so tall that my parents were afraid it would fall over our house, so they planned to cut it. However, they changed their mind. As a kid, I was curious to know why. Apparently, the tree was bringing us good fortune. The tamarind tree was thus saved by an astrologer. Good fortune is a superstitious belief, but it still helped the tree to survive.
My mother had a different reason to protect plants. She loves the plants in her garden, sometimes, I feel, even more than she loves me. I also love plants. I planted a few trees that I got from school in my home. But I understood that my mother’s love for plants was very selective when she chopped my little tree which was bearing too many thorns and annoying her flowering plants. I argued with my parents whenever they cut my trees. However, I was not daring enough to argue in every situation, especially at my school when the administration chopped down some beautiful old Mayflower trees to expand the playground. I kept silent. I was about to graduate and didn’t want to take the risk.
After that, in the two colleges I studied in, I again watched massive trees being cut down to make way for concrete buildings. I wished the tree-saving astrologer would work his magic at these campuses as well because, at that time, I didn’t have the guts to speak up.
Human needs overruled nature at every step. The evidence of a careless attitude and the disconnect between what was taught in our environmental science class and what actions were actually being taken were everywhere. In the college where I studied environmental science, I spotted a signboard: ‘plastic-free campus.’ It was placed just beside a pile of plastic waste.
I was part of a volunteering unit in the campus. We were cleaning up the beach for a day. During the clean-up drive, the residents of that area came to dump their trash in the beach, and they did so in front of us without any guilt. As part of the same volunteering unit, I approached one of our staff to ask where to dispose the trash collected during a ceremony. Without hesitation, he just pointed towards the pile of waste dumped behind the auditorium.
I still remember how difficult it was to convince the staff to get a simple waste basket for the auditorium. I tried to set up a waste disposal plan for one of the campuses. But this was certainly not a priority for the administration. Ironically, we were right at the place where we learned everything about waste management processes, but we were not able to apply them there.
Each of these incidents provoked me, but I felt helpless.
And then came the Kerala floods in August 2018. It was one of the most devastating floods in the history of Kerala. It cost nearly 500 lives and an estimated $56 billion in property damages. Thirteen out of fourteen districts were affected by the flood. For the first time, I stood up together with my friends to support relief work. We were able to mobilise and distribute relief materials to a few camps in the districts of Wayanad, Kozhikode, Idukki, Alappuzha and Trissur. I did not act because of being provoked but because of a need, and yet, it created a world of change in me. This gave me a lot of confidence to come out of my shell.
My experiences in the Indian education system opened my eyes to the contradictions of our actions irrespective of our knowledge and awareness about climate change. This has set me on a path I am determined to follow.
alarmo works with children to spread environmental awareness among communities. The children will lead their communities to restore their local environment. The children of age 8-14 will form task forces called Cuckoos, and they will go through a one-year scholarship program that includes four sections:
1) Learn from roots, in which camps are organized for children to learn about environmental issues and possible solutions.
2) Spread the green, where the children apply what they have learnt to restore their local environment by involving their communities. This section consists of workshops and activities.
3) Ring the bell, in which the children do campaigns on environmental conservation, including door-to-door campaigns.
4) Story through movie: Here, the children create a movie out of the actions they organized and exhibit them in their communities. Each batch of Cuckoos will be taken for an exposure trip to a natural landscape near their locality to understand the negative impacts caused by human intervention.
I am a budding environmentalist from Kerala which is called God’s own country because it has not seen bigger crises. Yet, we must act now, so we are prepared.
Learn more about Akhina’s work on http://alarmo.in/
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