By Manoshi de Silva Charith was going to spend his school vacation down south. They were to stay at his father’s friend, Uncle Ravi’s house, which was close to the beach. This meant playing in the sand, having sea baths, flying kites and so much more. Charith had been to this house a few years [...]

The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Leave Only Your Footprints

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By Manoshi de Silva

Charith was going to spend his school vacation down south. They were to stay at his father’s friend, Uncle Ravi’s house, which was close to the beach. This meant playing in the sand, having sea baths, flying kites and so much more. Charith had been to this house a few years ago, when he was much smaller. He could still recall all the fun they had then, with Uncle Ravi’s two sons.
On his way there Charith couldn’t take his eyes off the clear blue sea at a distance. The sea looked clear and quite calm too. He knew his younger sister and he were going to have a great week with Uncle Ravi and his family. “This is going to be a great trip!” he thought happily.

After a warm welcome and enjoying a delicious lunch, Charith, his sister Shani, Raveen and Praveen played in the garden. “Let’s go to the beach, please!” Charith’s small sister kept on begging. “It’s too hot now Shani. I promise to take you all in the evening!” promised Uncle Ravi.

Charith was also very excited to go to the beach. He longed to feel the soft white sand under his feet, the salty sea breeze, the cool waves splashing across his legs and the tide gently pulling him towards the sea. He couldn’t believe how much he had missed the sea.

After having evening tea, when the sunrays were less harsh, Uncle Ravi asked the children to get ready to go to the beach. Charith and Shani ran around in excitement fetching buckets, spades and other beach toys. But Raveen and Praveen seemed less excited. “I wonder why?” thought Charith, “Maybe because they live very close to the sea. They must be bored of always going there.”
The sea was walking distance away. As they got there Shani started running towards the water but soon tripped and fell. There were some plastic bottles carelessly thrown on the ground and she had stepped on one. Charith looked around shocked. The shore was covered with discarded plastic bottles, polythene bags and all kinds of garbage. It was an  eye-sore.

“Who has thrown these?” he asked Uncle Ravi. “Visitors throw the things they bring with them all over. Sadly it’s the very people from our own country that often show such disrespect to our country!” said Uncle Ravi angrily.
“That’s why we also don’t like coming to the beach anymore!” said Raveen. Charith sighed. It felt disgusting to walk along the beach. It was like walking on a garbage dump.

The boys started to fly their kites, trying to ignore the garbage strewn all over. While keeping his eye on his kite, Charith walked back pulling the string. He suddenly shouted in pain. His foot was bleeding. A piece of glass on the ground had cut his foot. Uncle Ravi quickly took them back home to treat Charith’s wound. “People shamelessly take no responsibility to keep the places they visit clean!”

Uncle said sounding annoyed.
“Now I also don’t feel bad to litter anymore, since the beach is anyhow dirty!” said Praveen. “Don’t ever do that!” said Uncle, “That will make you also one of those people who ruin our environment!” “Even if I stop it won’t make such a big difference. The others will continue throwing things anyway!” argued Praveen. “Even one person can make a huge difference. If everyone corrected themselves, soon we will have a beautiful country,” said Uncle and continued, “Even if others don’t change, at least you must make that change and be an asset to earth, not a burden!”

This gave Charith an idea. “Uncle, can we go to the beach tomorrow morning?” “Are you sure? Even after cutting your foot?” asked Uncle in surprise. “Yes, let’s take some gunny bags and collect all the plastic, glass and polythene and clean the shore as much as we can!” The other children also agreed. Uncle looked at the children and finally nodded. “That’s a very good idea indeed. I will also help!” he promised.

So the next morning Uncle Ravi brought some hand gloves and gunny bags and together with the children together went to the beach. They carefully picked up whatever they could and dumped those into the gunny bags. Uncle cleaned the broken glass pieces, which he didn’t want the children to handle. Soon there were five full gunny bags and less clutter on the shore.
A gentleman approached them and introduced himself as a lifeguard. “I am very proud of you children. We must always do our bit to help make the world a better place. Polluting the environment is not only a crime but it’s also a sin!” he said.

Then he called the children to the other end of the shore and pointed at something which looked like a big round rock.
The children and Uncle Ravi went near to observe. It was a beautiful huge turtle lying on the shore. Its eyes were closed. “He’s dead!” the lifeguard said sounding very sad. “So many turtles died recently!”

The children stared at the lifeguard in horror. “Turtles eat jellyfish. When polythene bags are thrown recklessly by people, those get washed into the water. When they float, turtles mistake them for jellyfish and eat those. Then they die a slow painful death. If this continues, the future world will have no turtles or other animals left on earth.”

The children stared at each other looking very worried. “I promise myself,” said Praveen, “that in future whenever there is no dustbin around, that I will bring back my garbage with me and throw it in a responsible manner!” “Even if it’s a small toffee wrapper, I’ll bring it back home and throw it away properly!” promised Shani.

The lifeguard nodded in approval. “Always remember this,” he told the children, “whenever you visit somewhere, leave nothing behind except your footprints!”

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