Floody and Muddy

This is not a picture to reflect the actual condition of the flood in Benalla but just for exaggeration purpose!!! =P

100 people forced to flee as rising lake splits Benalla

This was one of the headlines on the Age..one of the popular newspapers in Australia

Guess what? i might be one of the 100 people!!!

Broken River hit the major flood level..A swollen Lake Benalla split the city..this was the first time i was not merely reading the stories of some random unfortunate strangers on the news..but i was one of the unfortunate victims myself!!!

I have spent three days two nights at a place which is 3 and a half hours driving distance from Melbourne..fed my hands with dirt and immersed myself in mud..working hard to restore natural habitat..and there we were attacked by the nature itself..

Why? I'm really passionate about environmental issues..no whys..its our mother earth..the urge of protecting it is within me for so long..i can't bare thinking about our children breathing polluted air everyday..i can't bare imagining the landfill as high as mountains just because humans don't bother to recycle..i can't bare looking at the greeneries..the blues..the wonders of the nature..being destroyed day by day just because we think that they are none of our business!! Why can people ignore all the changes around them? Why can people think that they are here just to live,enjoy and die and let the people affected live suffer and die?

Just because we don't see it now..just because we don't feel it now..we could just pretend that nothing will happen and everyone will live happy ever after and call the environmentalist paranoids???!!!

We love the fairy tales in which the prince and the princess live happily ever after..but if the animals are dying..plants are withering..when we are surrounded by man-made mountains made of rubbish..can the prince and princess live happily ever after?

I just can't bare all these..so no matter how muddy the tree planting site was..no matter how boring the journey was..no matter how bad the weather treated us..i have no regrets spending three days just to plant trees despite the heavy workloads of my course..to do something..just to do something..for the nature..

Rain..flood..mud..worms..nothing unpleasant could stop us..the most memorable moment is the time when we looked back and got amazed by how many seedlings we have planted..how many lives we have brought..and how many hopes we have left behind..

I joined the Monash Biological Society for the Regent Honeyeater Tree Planting Project..i was honoured to be the only law students among all the science students in the group..the tree planting plan goes on every fortnights on weekeds..

Check the website for more information about the project

http://regenthoneyeater.org.au