STARTING A SCHOOL KINDNESS CLUB

	Why should you start a Club
	It is important to start a kindness club in every school because the habit of looking after animals and conserving habitat needs to be instilled into the young, if animals and humans who are dependent on them are to survive at all. Ahimsa is an ecological and economic essential. It is not just the looking after of animals that it strives for but of understanding the nature of the world and its creatures and the interdependence of us all. The club should also strive to teach children and, through them, their parents on alternative ways in which to conduct their lives in a way that brings happiness and prosperity to themselves and the world.
	How to stat a Club
	Remember : The steps outlined below can be taken by a child in the school itself or a parent/animal welfare volunteer. Make an appointment and talk to the Principal about starting a kindness club. Write a formal letter or a brochure that will spell out everything that the club seeks to do. The language of the brochure should be appropriate to the school. Get the principal to nominate a teacher for you who will be the nodal person for the club. Put a poster on the school bulletin board announcing the club and asking for members. Give a deadline and the name of the teacher to be contacted. You can also put up separate posters in each classroom. Ask the Principal to make an announcement about the club at school assembly time. Get a cup announced, or a series of prizes, by the Principal that will be given to the person who achieves the most in the club on the annual prize giving day. Institutionalize a prize for the Most Humane Child. A parent or a company can give a onetime grant for this. The prize must be given along with all other prizes so that it becomes a mainstream award and something that can be aspired to. Major Objectives Once the members are made - and each member should give some money, even if it is Rs. 10 each, which will be put into the corpus of the club-then the objectives of the club are to be laid down To promote vegetarianism To actually look after animals To find homes for animals To educate others about animal and environmental needs To campaign for change in cruel practices. To make kindness clubs in other schools and network with them. Rules Set up guidelines that will ensure the smooth functioning of the club Frequency of the meetings. It should not be less than once a week and should be towards the end of the week so that all the members have a chance to plan their weekends. Election/selection of office bearers and their tenure. A democratic secret ballot is the best. The posts can be of President, Secretary and Treasurer. Defining the powers of each post. Membership rules on : how to join the club. - member’s duties. how they can be asked to leave the club. Criteria used to deny the continuation of membership to a club. membership book with the names, addresses and phone numbers of each member.
	What are the basic duties of each Member in order to be part of the Club :
	No member should turn his back on a suffering animal. The member will learn first aid The member will be vegetarin (or vegan-which means no eggs and milk either) The member will be involved with all club activitites. The member must know the laws protecting animals and must use them if the occasion arises. The member must educate others on the legal and moral rights of animals. The member will feed stray animals Be distinctive. Use the membership money to buy badges or even simple green bands that can be worn on club days or in regularly school so that it becomes a badge of honour.
	Resource Information
	Approach animal welfare activists in your area. Most of them will be very busy, but if they think you are serious you might get them to become advisors to your club or come for a few sessions to give you ideas on what to do. Parents who are really interested should be involved. Teachers who are interested should be involved and asked to make members from their own classes. If the club gets too big it can always be divided into senior and junior levels. Write to know animal organizations like : The Animal Welfare Board of India 3rd Seasward Road, Valmiki Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur Chennai-600041. Ph. 4612842, 4612684, Fax 4612807 email : awbi@md3.vsnl.net.in The Blue Cross Society, Chennai 1 Eldams Road, Chennai. Ph. 4913270, 4910721 The Blue Cross Society, Hyderabad 403/9, Road No. 35, Jubilee Hills, Hyberabad-500033. Ph. 3544355, 3545523, Fax . 3608071 People for Animals, A-4, Maharani Bagh, New Delhi-110065. Ph. 6840402, 6824803, Fax. 6823144, email. gandhim@parlis.nic.in WWF-India, Pirojsha Godrej National Conservation Centre, 172-B, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi-110003. Ph. 4616532, 4693744, Fax. 4626837 Ask for a list of animalwelfare people/organisations in your area and for any information pamphlets they might have. Write to animal welfare groups all over the world and ask to be on their mailing list Access the internet for animal welfare sites. RSPCA Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 1HF, UK. email. executive@rspca.org.uk HSUS 2100 L Street NW, Washington, DC 20037. email. hsushsi@ix.netcom.com. These are good places to start. But go to as many sites as you can and start making small essays/pamphlets of the information that you get. This way you can build up the information library of the club. Many of these sites have free books on animal welfare that they send to clubs. Use the email to contact experts all over the world. Ask parents for birthday presents in the form of animal information books. If you know anyone abroad, you can write to them for books. Choose books on the internet, read the reviews.
	Fund Raising
	All animal welfare work needs money. Some for you to use and some to give us donations to animal welfare organizations. Here are different ways in which you can collect money : Have a raffle. Get a parent or someone you know who has a company to donate a prize or several people to donate prizes and then print tickets and sell them at reasonable rates. You can ask your principal to invite a local celebrity on a prefixed date to draw the lucky numbers. The child who sells the maximum tickets will be given a prize as well. Take a stall (ask the sponsors if you can get it free), at any mela and sell either home made food/items that you have made from waste items (papier-mache pen stands etc.) or anything that you can offer to sell from a shop which will then pay you a percentage of what you sell. If you know any artists ask them to paint on T-Shirts and caps and you can sell these in your school. Organise plays or music concerts in your school, colony or for parents and friends. Sell tickets for the event. Make a band that will play at birthday parties on payment. Arrange a school dance or an interschool quiz. See if you can find a printer who will make animal stamps for you which you can sell in your colony. Set up a collection box at a local restaurant/bookshop or shop which is frequented by young people and take the money from it weekly. Work in your holidays and donate your pay to the club funds. Many magazines/newspapers pay small amounts for articles for “kids corner”. Write regularly for them. Persuade a local restaurant to give your club a percentage of their earnings for a single day and advertise it widely. In return try to persuade as many people as you can to go to the restaurant. Ask students to bring in old bottles, metal cans, and newspapers from their homes and sell them to the kabariwallah. Make a souvenir for an event and go from shop to shop/petrol pump or small enterprise asking for advertisements. Groups of children can do this on their holidays. During your holidays you can offer to keep the pets of those people who are going on holiday and charge them per day. However make sure you look after them properly and that your parents don’t end up doing all the work. Grow plants/flowers and sell them. Learn a skill like mehndi decoration or rangoli. You can do it at weddings/festivals and charge money.
	Remember
	Plan a yearly agenda with the highlights of each month. Take into acount the learning curve of the months and exam time and plan your projects accordingly. Try to finish actions within a time period. People give up responsibilities if they feel the project has no end. Make teams to work on different projects. Work out the funds to be needed every year or per project. Remember 22nd April is Earth Day, 5th June is Environment Day and 14-30th January is the Animal Welfare Fortnight. Plan celebrations for them that draw the attention of or involve the whole school in animal welfare work. This does not mean only painting, quizzes, debates. It could be the planting of fruit trees of birds, visits to shelters & hospitals, films on animals etc.
	Work the Club can do
	The members should become vegetarian. Remember you cannot eat one animal and then save another. If you talk about saving dolphins then you cannot eat tuna because thousands of dolphins are caught with tuna by fishermen. You can’t eat goats and talk about saving the tiger because goats are bred arificially for meat and fed in the forest. Most goat herds are scared of tigers so they poison the waterholes and kill them. The worst cruelty is perpetrated on animals that are killed for food:chickens, cows,goats, buffaloes, sheep, fish, ducks. Work at a shelter. Make a list of what the shelter needs funds (work out ways how to collect them), doctors, medicines, an ambulance, fans, utensils etc. Once a week all students can bring old clothes, blankets, sheets, newspapers, bowls, milk, grains, vegetable peels, leftovers etc. Approach a hotel/ restaurant and ask them if you can take away some of their leftovers to feed the animals in the shelter. See if you can earn enough money to sponsor one day’s feeding at the local shelter every month. Collect sample medicines from doctors or leftover medicines from your colony which have not expired and bring them to the shelter. If the shelter is doing the dog sterilization (ABC) Programme, then your club can help. You can volunteer to get all the stray dogs in your neighbourhood sterilized with the help of the local veterinary hospital. As a lot of post-operative care is required, it is necessary that the hospital has a wellequipped operation theatre, adequate supply of medicines, anti-rabies vaccinations etc. When the dogs have recovered, put collars or coloured bands on their necks so that they are protected from being caught and killed. After the dogs have been sterilized, make sure they are replaced in the same area and see that they are fed by the colony. This way you will eliminate the killing of these animals by the municipal authorities. If the municipality starts a dog killing drive approach the municipal commissioner pressurizing him to stop the killings immediately. Write regularly to the newspapers against it so that the pressure is built up. The more people that write the better it is. If there is no shelter, go and help in the local goverment veterinary hopitals. Bring in injured animals and get them proper medication. Learn simple first aid from the vets and apply them on the injured animals found in your area. Teach first aid to your friends as well. Ask a local vet to give some time regularly in your school or his clinic to treat sick and injured animals. Open a small place in your school to treat injured animals. You can get the book - First Aid for Animals (Rs.60) and Natural Health for your dog (Rs.75)from Sterling Publishers, L-10 Green Park Extension, New Delhi 110016. Adopt a homeless animal. Start a campaign called Adopt an Indian Dog and set the first example by taking a dog from the street into your own home. Ask each member to take in one dog each. If one in 50 people adopted an Indian dog, there would be no dogs left to suffer so miserably on the streets. Put collars or bands on their necks and give them nice names. Try and get other homeless dogs adopted as well. You can ask the local health officer/government veterinary clinic to vaccinate them for antirabies free. If there is a shelter in your area that does sterilizations then have your dogs sterilized. Do not adopt foreign pedigreed dogs and discourage others from doing so. It is only foolish people who regard dogs as status symbols that buy foreign pedigreed dogs when there so many strong and healthy Indian dogs that need a home. Years of inbreeding of pedigreed dogs have led to a number of genetic dieases in dogs. Discourage the training of dogs as well. Dogs need no training to guard a home as protective behavious comes naturally to them. All that is needed is love and a sense of belonging. Ensure that the dogs get proper food, shelter, medical attention and the family’s personal care. If you want to adopt a dog, pick up one off the road and keep it as part of the family. Indian dogs are loving, confident and healthy. Take care of stray animals in Diwali from burns and injuries. It is specially bad for animals and a large number of birds in cities are killed by the noise, pollution and fires that erupt, the lights on the trees etc. Lots of people tie crackers to animals - cows, dogs, donkeys and watch them explode on these animals. Many animals starve to death because the crackers last for a week and they hide during that time as they are too frightened to look for food. If a bird cannot eat/drink for 24 hours it is dead. Therefore, make provision for food and water by feeding the animals in your area. You can bring in a few dogs/pups into your home and keep them in one room or maybe under the staircase so that they are protected for that day/night. Build a small water tank (even an old tub will do) outside your house and your school to feed passing animals and birds. The tub can be 12-14 inches high from the ground to allow easy drinking. Make sure that the tub has round corners so that the corners do not hurt the animal’s necks while they drink water. Make a small opening inside the tank so that dirty water can be let out from that opening and filled with clean water. Clean the tank every day and refill with fresh water. Feed the birds at home. Put cooked rice, bread crumbs, overnight soaked channa, millet, small pieces of chapati, small pieces of fruit like watermelon every morning at the same place and time everyday. Put a shallow earthen water bowl next to it for the birds to drink, play and bath in water. 70% of all birds in the cities die of hunger and starvation as there are no fruit trees and water bodies. If you do not have a garden grow food for the birds in pots. Bulbuls like Chinese oranges, hummingbirds like hamelias, parakeets like green chillies, butterflies like all flowers. Hang a bird feeder from a pole or tree in your verandah/balcony to give birds food all year round. Put bajra, cooked rice, bread crumbs, etc. Hang another feeder for the squirrels and put peanuts, channa for them. Instead of gifting anyone flowers give them a living plant in a pot. Write to the newpapers about some cruelty inflicted on animals that you see regualrly and what can be done about it. Keep an eye on cruel pet owners. You can politely warn them and offer to take their animals out for exercisee if they are locked up all the time. If the owner does not listen, complain to the police under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and under Sections 428/429 of the the Indian Penal Code. Make posters of the laws and put them in each police station. Very often the police are not helpful to animal welfare activists because they do not know the law themselves. Learn the basic animal related laws such as the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. These include hitting or hurting animals, transporting them in a manner that causes suffering, not providing proper food and medical help (including the homeless ones), abandoning them or causing death, over loading when the maximum loads are specified, killing/hunting, selling wild animals/birds or their parts in any form, etc. Plant trees. Choose the ones that suit the local environment, eg. jamun, ber, bel, mango, babul, kadam, neem, amla, tamarind, sisam,gulmohar, bargat,semal, drumstick, kachnar, champa, babul, amaltas, etc. Ask your principal to get you an area from the local authority for planting trees. The local PWD can be asked to fence the plantation area. If your school has limited space plant creepers like bouganvillea, jasmines, etc against the walls. Each member can collect Rs.5/- each or more from the colony residents and children to buy more saplings and plant them within the colony. You can also adopt a local park or the road dividers for tree plantation. The colony children can be encouraged to look after them supervised by your group or a local gardener. Start a compost heep in your school. Cultivate earthworms in your backyard as they are the best producers of organic compost. Stop people from burning their leaves and show them how to make manure at home. Instead of throwing away the discarded greens, dried cut flowers, fallen leaves, cut grass, kitchen waste-make a hole at the back and put all these things in it. Add earthworms and, in a few days, it will turn into manure. If you do not have a garden you can do the same thing with large flowerpots. Conserve paper and pencils. Both paper and pencils are responsible for lakhs of trees being cut down everyday making animals and birds homeless and open to poachers. Suggest a paper audit and find ways in which your class can reduce its use of paper. Use recycled paper. Write on both sides of the paper and ask your teacher if you can forego margins as one fifth of the sheet is wasted. Make optimum use of each sheet of paper or page avoiding excessive margins and bold writing. Use used craft paper for making packets, etc. Reuse envelopes and cartons from postal deliveries. Do not collect unwanted paper or use paper napkins, avoid sending greeting cards. Even when the paper is of no use, do not throw it away but sell it to a kabariwallah and whatever money is collected can be used for buying food for animals. Ensure that the garbage area in your colony is free of plastic bags. Either ask people in your colony not to throw plastic in the garbage or set up a bin where they can throw plastic. Hundreds of cows die from eating it. Also see that the dump is covered and cleaned regularly. You can introduce a garbage separation scheme in your school and colony. In school ask the principal to have separate differently coloured bins for organic and inorganic waste. The existing bins can be marked or coloured. In your colony arrange to collect all edible waste on a daily basis and put it at a fixed time and place for stray animals. Take a group of children to popular shops and thelawallas and inform them that if they use plastic, you will not buy from them any more. Look at the local zoo. Petition the local authorities for better standards for the animals-hygienic food, open spaces, medical attention. Organise clean up sessions, form a zoo protection squad which will go to the zoo every alternate day and monitor the feeding of animal. Request local restaurants/dhabas and people to contribute grain for the birds, vegetables and fruits for the monkeys and rabbits, and extra ration for the big animals. Ensure that each enclosure is cleaned and there is fresh drinking water in each one. See that phenyl is not used for cleaning as this kills the animals. Approach schools, colleges, corporate firms to sponsor individual enclosures and say that they will get publicity for doing so. Plant trees within the zoo premises and put up charts with regard to animal protection, their needs etc. Keep an eye for school that have mini zoos. These are illegal. Inform the principals and have the animals taken home by students or released if they are birds/turtles. If there is any zoo with animals in a miserable condition write to Additional. IG. Forests, Ministry for Environment and Forests, Paryavaran Bhava, CGO Complex, New Delhi-110003. Close all illegal butcher shops. Under the law it is illegal to slaughter any animal for meat except in a licenced slaughterhouses. Only when the municipality does not have a slaughterhouse can it licence butchershops. Even the licenced ones have to follow the ISI rules related to hygiene and the disposal of waste matter. The butcher shops have to have glass fronts, taps, proper ventilation etc. No animal can be killed in front of another. No chickens can be kept crowded together in pens. The chicken stalls are illegal if the waste flows into the public sewers and contaminates the water supply. Meet the local municipal commissioner and pressurize him to close all illegal shops and cancel the licences of the ones that do not follow the ISI rules. As a club, file FIRs in the local thanas against each shop giving its name and the name of the owners. Raid wild bird/animal markets. There are many markets that sell wild birds/turtles/monitor lizards etc., illegally. The selling of parts of animals like peacock feathers, owl parts, bear hair etc. is illegal. When you find a seller lodge an FIR with the local police station stating the crime and law for it. (Most policemen do not know the law so always keep a copy of the extract of the law when complaining to the police). Insist that a police officer accompany you to the market site as soon as possible to arrest the offenders while committing a crime. Get the media (television and newspapers) to highlight this issue for a number of days so that the pressure is there. Form vigilant squads to report to the police and the forest officials. Inform the local residents about the laws so that they too can initiate action. Announce that an incentive, such as an award or appreciation letter by the organization or local prominent personality, will be given to that person for stopping animal cruelty. Find out the name and address of the local wildlife warden and contact him/her to curb such trade. Protest in front of circuses. Circuses keep animals caged in small cages hungry, and torture them while training. When a circus visits your city, discourage people from going to the circuses. Tear down all their publicity material advertising the circus. Picket its entrance and distribute flyers to people explaining the torture inflicted on animals by beating, electrocution and starvation to make them perform better. Check the animals' cages. If they are too small and the animal is found to be cramped in the enclosure, file a complaint with the police. All circuses also need to get a certificate from a local vet that the animals are in a fit condition to perform. Get the vet to refuse this certification in which case the circus cannot be allowed to use its animals. The Government of India has banned 5 species of animals, namely lion, tiger, panther, monkey and bear from being exhibited for entertainment. Immediately contact the local zoo authority for rehabilitating the banned animals. Make sure that the circus does not leave town with these animals. Protect about films/ads that include animal cruelty. Dissuade people from seeing them. Write to the papers and magazines about them. Also write to : Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association, IMPPA House, Unit No. 11, Dr. Ambedkar Road, Bandra, Mumbai-400050. Indian Motion Pictures Distributors Association 33 Vijay Chamber, Tribhuvan Road, Mumbai-400004 Indian Film Directors Association, 501 Navin Asha, Dada Saheb Phalke Road, Dadar, Mumbai-400014 Show animal welfare films to the school. Organise workshops and slide shows on both animal welfare and animal cruelty. You can get the films from animal welfare groups. You can also see the newspaper listings for films on Discovery or Animal Planet or National Geographic Channels and have them taped. These can be shown in your school if it consists of something that will sensitise children to these ideas. Stop dissection in your school. Dissection does not teach children to become doctors nor do all the children take up biology to become doctors. Dissection is brutal, unnecessary and bad for the environment. There are several alternatives to dissection and can be easily understood through diagrams, computer programmes and 3D models. It is illegal under Section 17 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 to dissect or collect specimens of animals if alternaties are available. Also the court order followed by the Gazette notification makes it mandatory for all Indian schools to provide students with alternatives to dissection. Failure to do so can lead to contempt of court proceedings. The school principal can institutionalise the change from dissection to alternative methods. you can get computer programmes, models, slides, charts etc. from : Blue cross, Chennai, 1 Eldams Road, Chennai - 600018. Bio-visual Products, 217 Cycle Market, Jhandewallan, New Delhi-110055. You can get 3D models from : Bharat Graphics, 194 Industrial Area Phase II, Post Box No. 633, Chandigarh-160002. Give a lecture in your school every week about something you have learnt about animals in your city and in India. Get animal experts to address your school. Maintain a monthly report about each member’s work for animals. Let them discuss their experiences with animals and how they save/rescue/ treat them. Make a small information pamphlet or bring out a small magazine with events of your club and animal news in your area/town. Give details of laws/first aid/steps for conservation etc. in it. Use the media to highlight the club work so that other people will start working with you. Network with other clubs and meet once a year to learn from each other. The greater the number of school kindness clubs the more you can learn and the better it is for animals. Substitute chemicals at home with safer, natural alternatives which have no side effects and are non pulluting, For example, air freshners, sprays and aerosols contain chlorofluorocarbons (which deplete the ozone layer) and a lot of harmful chemicals can be supplemented by natural citrus oils. Baking soda can be used as a refrigerator deodorizer. Disinfectants and toilet cleaners that contain ammonia, sodium hydrogen sulphate, formaldehyde, etc., can be replaced with a borax solution and even just hot salt water. A solution of baking soda and vinegar in boiling water can be used as a sink cleaner. Ants are repelled by mint leaves, kumkum, haldi or talcum powder. Use borax for cockroaches. Plant tulsi, tomatoes or lemon around your house or in window boxes to deter mosquitos. Net your door and windows. Dried neem leaves will keep away mice. Do not kill spiders and lizards as they prey on other pests and keep the home clean. The fleas in your pets can be removed by adding some yeast and garlic to their food. Flies can be tackled by leaving orange peels around your room. Discourage moths with neem leaves or oil. Use white wine vinegar to clean windows. Get information like this through internet and books and spread it round the school. Do not use aluminium foil which causes damage to the liver and kidneys. Substantial ingestion or exposure to aluminium may precipitate colic, memory loss, nervousness, irritation,skin ailments. If it is leached out of the soil in rivers/lakes by acid rain, it causes the killing of fish and birds which feed on water insects. Do not use detergents that contain ammonia, benzene, formaldehyde and also large amounts of phosphates which go down the drain when you wash your clothes. Detergents also contain optical brighteners which are made of compounds such as Dioxins - a chemical group of toxic chlorine based compounds that kill all water inhabitants and cause cancer in humans. They are non-bioegradable. Dishwashers contain chloroform, trichloroethane; disinfectants contain diethylene glycol, formaldehyde; soaps contain phosphate, chlorine; non rechargeable batteries contain mercury and caadmium. The chemicals from the batteries leach into the soil when dumped in garbage and through the acquifers get into plants, trees and crops. If these chemicals are dumped into the lakes/rivers/sea they enter the bodies of fish. Rechargeable batteries contain less cadmium and last longer. Start reading about the chemicals in the things you use and what effect they have on the habitat of animals. Write to the companies of cosmetic products, asking whether their products are tested on animals and demand that the product labels should carry this information. Inform the company that you will boycott their products if tested on animals. Get as many people as you can to sign such letters to such companies. You can get a complete list of crueltyfree products from Beauty without Cruelty, Ms Diana Ratnakar, 4 Prince of Wales Drive, Wanowrie, Pune, Ph. 664321 Make this information available to all by putting it on the school notice board. Do not use silk, paintbrushes, leather. Silk manufacturing begins by mating fully grown moths. After mating the male moths are dumped live into baskets and used as animal feed. So millions of adults die here itself. Silkmoths are boiled alive. To produce 100 grams of silk, approximately 1500 chrysalis have to die. Silk oil and silk powder made of dead adult moths are used by the cosmetic industry in products for moisturising and conditioning of the skin and hair, hair styling mousses and in some eyeshadows and face powders. Here is an alternative: Eri silk is the only natural silk that does not necessitate the killing of silk moths. It is available in some shops and can be ordered from Tamalpur Anchalik, Gramadan Sangh, PO Kumasi Kata, Nalbari, Assam. Ph. : 361-522344. In Delhi, for instance, it is sold in the Tribes Shop, 9 Mahadeva Road, New Delhi. Ask members of the family to refrain from buying silk. Paint brushes are made from pig bristles. Indian sable brushes are made from mongoose hair. Camel, goat and squirrel hair is also used. Fine artwork brushes use hair from the squirrel’s tail for which thousands of squirrels are killed. Camlin brushes are made of goat hair, imported sable hair and hog bristles. They are also made illegally from mongoose hair. All hair are pulled out in clumps from fully conscious animals who are bound and die from stress in the process. Leather is not a by-product of the meat industry. The Indian leather industry kills animals for their hide. Even khadi bhandar and other such outlets procure their leather from slaughterhouses. Alternatives include leather imitations, jute, rubber, plastic, rexene, and canvas. Do not use leather shoes, bags, clothes. Do not use kites or balloons as both kill birds and fish. The strings of kites get entangled with bird’s legs and wings cutting them and making them fall to the ground. Balloons are thrown away into water where they are eaten by fish who then strangle on them. Do not use Styrofoam (commonly found in the form of disposable plastic foam cups in restaurants) as this is non biodegradable and destroys water. If you eat at fast-food restaurants, ask for proper cups and plates. If they do not have these, tell them that as much as you like their food you do not want to use styrofoam products in any form. Constant protests by your club will make them switch to eco-friendly products as they would not like to lose their customers! Clean local water bodies so that living creatures like fishes, amphibians etc. can live. If you find a water body getting choked with weeds like water hyacinth and algae, take a weekend to clean them out. Do not throw any kind of litter in or around the water bodies. If you find anyone throwing garbage, stop them or pick it up yourself throwing it in a bin. Put big garbage drums/bins in that area. If you find any bottles/alumimium cans, bring them home for recycling or sell them to the garbage collector. Organize weekly camps for treating sick and injured horse/donkeys at a fixed place so that owners can bring their animals for treatment. You can take a vet, medicine and food to tanga stands/stables area wise every week. Give a small press release in advance with the details of the venue so that they can bring their animals for free treatment. Discourage people from keeping aquariums at homes/offices/shops. Fish are not toys to be pulled out of the sea and brought into the house or office to amuse you or to show off. For every fish that comes into the tank, hundreds will have died while being captured from the sea and transported. The rest of the fish in the tank will live unhappily, be badly fed and maintained for a few weeks until they die. Fish are totally allergic to smoke in a room or any noise that an office generates and bright lights. Make sure that your school does not have one and write letters of protest to any public/government office/shop that does. Look after the animals in your colony. Collect chappatis, vegetables/fruit peels, bread, buns and other leftovers from each neighbour and see that the cows are fed in the same place and time. put a tub/ drum of clean water next to it so that they do not have go far in search of water. Stop tangas and bullock carts from overloading and mistreating their animals. Under the law a tanga cannot have more than 5 people including the driver on it. A pony cannot carry more than 70 Kg, a donkey 50 kg and a camel 250 kg. A two wheeled bullock cart cannot have more than 900 kg as it does not have rubber tyres. If it has tryes it cannot carry more than 1350 kg. A 2 wheeled camel cart cannot carry more than 1000 kg. No animal can be used if it is limping or is wounded. No animal cart owner can have a stick with a nail at the end or poke the animal with a sharp instrument. Animals cannot be used for more than 5 hours a day at a stretch. The animal has to be freed after its work. Hobbling the legs of horses/donkeys is illegal. There is a lot you can do to help animals and protect the environment. Start a kindness club today.