Chirps of a Forest Bird

  25th May, 2050 ”Why Areca nuts in our farms aren’t growing ?” I asked. ”I don’t know..” My big brother, Mahesh sighed. I am Mira , a 9 year old girl from the farming background. But now, me and my 3 friends were wondering why there no enough crops in their farms. From last year. the whole area didn’t had enough crops to feed on. What happened? ”Let’s find out! Let’s go and ask someone” Ramu suggested. He seemed pretty excited. ”What are you going ask anyway?” Chaitra asked, crossing her arms. ”Let us see what they say” Mahesh said. Chaitra nodded. We all went to find the best person to answer – our grandmother. After searching for a while, we finally found her! You know where she is? Near the Mango tree! But this year, we don’t have any mangoes. There are three other people with her. They looked like they were some officers. What she’s doing there anyway? ”Grandma?” Chaitra called. Grandma turned at us. The officer-looking people turned too. What they are doing here? ”What are yo...

  I am a whale. A completely normal baby blue whale.And I am here to tell my story. Well, our kind is known to be the biggest mamal on the earth. No matter how big we are in size, we are not living happily. Once upon a time, there were many whales in the ocean. Not now. I see my friends getting killed every day. I don’t know when it’s my turn. My mother died last month, she ate some wierd-algae-like-things( I heard it is called plastic), thinking of food and died. I am lonely now. I heard that another blue whale which lived far.. far away from here, was hunted by humans. illustration by  Yulia Ivashchuk  , dribble One day, when I was very small, I saw a little sea turtle eating a piece of plastic. A week after it was dies. Why this plastic is coming to oceans and killing us? Is plastic is a monster? I’ve seen humans dumping it into the ocean. These days, all the marine animals are dying. My mother always use to tell me ”Never swim near the humans” and when I didn’t obyed ...

Photo by Sacha Styles on Unsplash   ‘’ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಂಡುಬರುವ  15 ಬೆಕ್ಕಿನ ಜಾತಿಯ ಸಸ್ತನಿಗಳು ಕಂಡುಬರುತ್ತವೇ. ನಮ್ಮ ಊರಿನ ಬಳಿ ಕಾಣುವ ಚಿರತೆ,ಹುಲಿ  ಕೂಡಾ ಇದೆ ಗುಂಪಿಗೆ ಸೇರುವಂತದ್ದು…ನೇಹಾ? ನೇಹಾ?’’  ಸಸ್ತನಿಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಪಾಠ  ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಟೀಚರ್  ನೇಹಾ ಏನನ್ನೋ ಯೋಚಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದದನ್ನು  ಕೂಗಿದರು. ಹಗಲುಗನಸು ಕಾಣುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ನೇಹಾ ಗಾಬರಿಯಿಂದ ತಿರುಗಿ ನೋಡಿದಳು. ‘’ನೇಹಾ.. ಏನು ಯೋಚಿಸ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದೀಯಾ?’’ ಟೀಚರ್ ಕೋಪದಿಂದ ಕೇಳಿದರು. ‘’ ಎ-ಏನೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ’’ ನೇಹಾ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹೆದರುತ್ತಲೆ ಉತ್ತರಿಸಿದಳು.  ‘’ಸರಿ ಹಾಗಾದ್ರೆ, ಈಗ ಉತ್ತರ ಹೇಳು... ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಎಷ್ಟು ಬೆಕ್ಕಿನ ಜಾತಿಯ ಪ್ರಾಣಿಗಳಿವೆ?’’ ಅವರು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಕಠೋರವಾಗಿಯೇ ಕೇಳಿದರು.  ‘’ಹದಿನೈದು, ಟೀಚರ್’’ ನೇಹಾ ಉತ್ತರಿಸಿದಳು.  ‘’ಸರಿ. ಇನ್ನೂ ಪಾಠದ ಮೇಲೆ ಗಮನ ಕೊಡು’’ ಎಂದು ಟೀಚರ್ ಉತ್ತರಿಸಿ ಮುಂದೆ ಓದಲು ಶುರು ಮಾಡಿದರು. ಪಾಠ ಸಾಗಿತು...  ***** ‘’ನೇಹಾ...ನೀನು ಇವತ್ತು ರಂಜಲು ಹಣ್ಣು ಹೆಕ್ಕಲೆ ಕಾಡಿಗೆ ಬತ್ಯಾ?’’ ಗೆಳತಿ ಇಶಾ ಕೇಳಿದಳು.  ‘’ಬರದೇ ಎಂತಾ ಆಜೇ? ಬರ್ತಿ  ಬಿಡು’’ ನೇಹಾ ಉತ್ತರಿಸಿ ಮತ್ತೆ ತನ್ನ ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಪ್ರಪಂಚಕ್ಕೆ ಹಿಂದಿರುಗಿದಳು.  ನೇಹಾ 12 ವರ್ಷದ ಹುಡುಗಿ.ಮಲೆನಾಡಿನ ಚಿಕ್ಕ ಹಳ್ಳಿಯೊಂದರಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ನೇಹಾ 7 ನೇ ತರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಓದುತ್ತಿದ್ದಳು.  ಮಧ...

It was a silent sunny morning. All the flowers in the garden were blooming. But the little Daisy and plump Lotus were thinking about the absence of humans. “Why are they not coming to the garden? Are they sick?” asked Daisy. Lotus said “Yeah, you’re right. They’ve been missing for a week. If not they would come to garden with their mobiles. Maybe they have gone somewhere?” “Whatever the case, I am happy without them. They made us dump in the dust and plastic”, said Daisy. “But I am curious about it,” said Lotus. “We know what to do now!” A voice came from behind. There were two butterflies. “What do you mean you know?” asked the flowers. “I think we can call Mother Nature to answer our questions,” said one of the butterflies. “Mother Nature!” exclaimed Daisy. ” Yes, you’re right, let’s call her”. All of them called Mother Nature. Then suddenly the trees leaves became the shape of a face and she asked, “What happened little ones? Why did you call me?”. “Mother nature, where ...