Olivia was returning home from school while riding her cycle. It usually takes her ten to fifteen minutes but today she is stuck in traffic for almost half an hour. After ten more minutes she lost her patience, parked her cycle in a public stand and tried to walk home. She decided to rest by a small lake on her way home. Suddenly she saw a fish struggling. She went to an elderly man called Joe and asked for help. Luckily, Joe was expert in dealing with fishes. He told Olivia that the fish got stuck in a plastic bag. Olivia was shocked to hear that because when she was five years old, she used to play in that same lake and it was as clean as a whistle. She promised that she will try to clean the lake with her friends in the summer holidays. After a few months summer came, and so did the holidays. Olivia did not forget about her promise. It was hard, but she persuaded her friends to help her clean it. A few days passed by, Olivia and her friends were busy cleaning. Suddenly uncle...

  Nowadays, plastics are very common all over the world, but these plastics can lead to severe health diseases.  It’s an incident which happened about three years ago. It was my first day at school in class 4. It was a bright sunny day. I was going to school, early morning, when I saw a malodorous garbage dump at the side of the road which made our environment poisonous. It was fully dumped with polythene bags, plastic bottles and rotten garbage. That day, our school bus got late due to traffic. So, after reaching my school, my friends and I rushed in so that we did not have to wait till the gate reopened after the prayer. Then, after two classes were over, the bell rang and the time came to start the geography class. We were all very excited to know who our new session’s geography teacher was.  After our teacher entered the classroom, everyone shouted “Hurray! it’s our previous year’s geography teacher!” Her name was Soma Bhattacharya. She was an ideal teacher wh...

Narrator: We all know how harmful plastic is. In addition to polluting the earth, it poses a risk to marine life as well. It has come to a point where we all need to eliminate plastic from our daily lives. Keeping tabs on the situation around us is important so that we can take steps to improve it. Let me share a story about a family who inspired others as well.   The Gokhale family lives in Delhi. Mr. Gokhale heads a family of four members which includes his son, his daughter, his wife and himself. One day, at the dinner table, Mr. Gokhale’s son, Arun brought up a very serious topic.   Arun: Father, do you know, today in school, we learned about pollution caused by plastic all over the world. I actually realised today how serious this matter is. I must say our carelessness is the main cause of it. We all think about ourselves but often forget to think about the environment. Every year, plastic waste is generated in large quantities - more than 300 million tonnes. The ...