IN a side lane at the Dangui Colony in Mapusa, the Green Cross, opened its office on February 4, with environment-loving cartoonist Alexyz as the chief guest. Around 30 wild life volunteers and animal lovers witnessed the groovy scene, which had a perfectly natural touch in keeping with the name of their office "But Naturally".

The Green Cross office will help disseminate information on wild life in Goa through books and other publicity material. It will also serve as an outlet for paintings, ceramics and other art-related items with nature as the take-off point, to raise funds for their green activities.

The highly committed band of young animal lovers, with art student Nirmal Kulkarni and law student Sunil Korajkar in the lead, have set their aim at ensuring that Goa's wild life does not come to any harm at the hands of poachers and others, who harm wild animals for their selfish purpose. With their daring exploits they have reduced incidents of people confining wild animal to cages as pets, or maiming them for personal benefit as circus owners and snake charmers do.

In collaboration with the Forest Department, the Green Cross activists have been able to achieve at least a semblance of their basic ideal. At the same time, they have been helping the public by attending emergency calls when wild animals stray into the village or snakes enter the house.

Through well conducted camps with slide-shows, photographs and presentations, they have been able to increase an awareness among the student community about the immediate need of the preservation of wild life in the natural habitat.

The 40 odd members of the Green Cross being still students, who study in different streams, have to sacrifice their urge to enjoy as their peers do. But they have adopted a tough but sufficiently educative and rewarding direction and find it quite easy to relate to their fellow students while discussing about the conservation of nature if man has to survive.

Nirmal Kulkarni is a so thorough with his deep knowledge about every wild animal and its behaviour, that it is like opening a book on the topic, when one seeks answers for various questions on snakes, crocodiles, civet cats, birds, et al. Too tough for a fine art student, Nirmal will brook no interference by anyone where wild life is concerned, and have braved threats from poachers and others. Their pet hobby is to expose people to snakes by explaining which snakes are poisonous and dangerous and with which snakes one could conveniently play with.

Another interesting fact at the inauguration of the "But Naturally", was the presence of a students who had come all the way from Keri in Ponda taluka, Cortalim in and some from Valpoi. Moreover, none of them were passive observers but participated actively in the discussion, describing their experience in their endeavours in the hills and forests, which they love so dearly and would do anything to preserve in their pristine manner. They also loved their mother tongue Konkani, which was evident with the absorbing little street play they enacted to illustrate the ill effects on Goa if Karntaka is allowed to divert the Mahadei river water for their proposed dam.

JD