Neela, was a freshwater fish, who lived with her family in a small well, near the Titan Jewellery factory in Hosur, an industrial town in Tamil Nadu. She spent her childhood days swimming around in the well with her circle of friends, enjoying the outside view. She would swim near the water surface racing with the darting birds above. She gazed upon the endless trees and loved observing the humans working in the fields and listening to them singing songs and sharing tales with each other, while they grazed their cattle.
The humans would fetch water from the well, to satiate their thirst. Neela felt proud and privileged, that even the powerful humans, who harnessed nature to construct enormous structures and tamed mighty beasts, depended on their humble well for satiating their thirst, whereas she could enjoy it indefinitely. She would realize soon that her world would be turned upside down.
Some years back the water table started falling drastically, and Neela could no longer see the surroundings or hear people talk. Neela missed this a lot and resigned herself to watching the birds in the sky who were her only reminder of the outside world. She wondered what the humans would be up to and whether they could have caused the dropping water levels in the well.
Then surprisingly in the last few months, the water level in the well started increasing, even though there was not much rainfall to cause such a change. It was now possible for Neela to peek at the surroundings and listen to faint human voices. She was impressed with a lot of new buildings, that had come up but saddened with the fact now few farmers were coming to graze their cattle near her well. Nevertheless, Neela was curious to know the reason for rising water levels and she hoped to get some answers soon. She started paying more attention to conversations between humans from then on.
On a calm night, Neela heard Thangadurai, a local resident, talking to Ravi, an employee of the Titan jewellery factory. Ravi was sharing the need for steps by the residents of Hosur to conserve water so as to increase the water table. He then shared the various steps taken by Titan to reduce water consumption and also replace the use of fresh water with wastewater in their operations, which has led to the water table rising in their locality. Ravi explained that only by conserving groundwater and recharging water bodies will they be able to improve the ecological health of Hosur. Neela was amazed to learn about the work being done by Titan to improve the health of local water bodies by reducing groundwater exploitation by themselves and the public.
Ravi particularly quoted one example, of how they as a team, had taken a challenge to reduce water consumption by 50% in their department, which was five times the target, set by their management. Ravi further explained that this team had not only met this ambitious target, through various innovative methods, but went ahead to achieve a final reduction of 86% of their water usage. Neela was thus happy to learn that soon the well would be brimming with clean water and high levels, like she experienced during her childhood.
Lessons Learned
This story tells us how every organization should realize importance of environment sustainability, as ultimately the welfare of our future generations, flora and fauna depends on the environment which nurtures us. It also helps us understand that when we come up with creative ideas and execute them systematically, we can reap benefits beyond our wildest imagination.