Q1.
Let us raise awareness about the issues related to river and ocean pollution by composing a poem. A few lines have been written here, add more lines—
Answer
What your poem should carry: what the pollution is (plastic bags, bottles, wrappers, straws), who it hurts (fish like Koilas, birds, and us), where it comes from (our own homes and streets) and what we can do (refuse single-use plastic, never throw waste into water, pick up what we see).
Sample answer — lines you can add to the book’s poem:
A bottle cap, a broken straw,
A wrapper from a shop next door,
The drain took it, the river too,
And left it at the ocean floor.
Koilas cannot tell the tale,
Of nets that catch both fish and mail —
Of packets, bags and plastic string,
Caught up in the fisherman’s haul.
So carry a cloth bag to the store,
Refuse the plastic at the door,
For every piece we do not throw,
Is one less pain the rivers know.
A bottle cap, a broken straw,
A wrapper from a shop next door,
The drain took it, the river too,
And left it at the ocean floor.
Koilas cannot tell the tale,
Of nets that catch both fish and mail —
Of packets, bags and plastic string,
Caught up in the fisherman’s haul.
So carry a cloth bag to the store,
Refuse the plastic at the door,
For every piece we do not throw,
Is one less pain the rivers know.
The link with this chapter: Otukkam’s fishing net separates fish from water — a natural kind of filtration. But the net also brings up bags, bottles and wrappers, because plastic does not dissolve and does not rot. Nature has no separation method that can take plastic out of a river. The only method that works is not putting it in.