They have dropped their surnames to adopt a title that they have given themselves. A motley group of 30 or so working towards environmental conservation in the villages of Howrah are calling themselves Prakritibadi or environmentalists. So Sourav Mukherjee, who started the group right after finishing college in 2011, is Sourav Prakritibadi, his friend Santu Khanra is Santu Prakritibadi and his friend Bijay is Bijay Prakritibadi.

The Prakritibadis, apart from changing their inherited surnames, talk and work a lot for the conservation of the rural ecology and environment. Their movement, the Independent Forum for Public Awareness (IFPA) has done a lot in snake bite management. 

“I am from Panchla village and snakes abound here, some very poisonous. A large number of snake bite cases are reported from here and in 2014, four men died of snake bite in Panchla block only because of lack of awareness. They didn’t go for treatment and went to an ojha instead. So we go around and teach people what to do when a snake bites someone. This year, there hasn’t been a single death yet from snake bite,” said Sourav.

The Prakritibadis are also up in arms against pond filling, factory pollution. There was a garment dye factory in a village, which was releasing effluents in the waterbodies around it. Sourav along with Santu and others were protesting against this. “We had built a movement against the factory owner and we were on the verge of getting the factory closed when the locals came to us and said they would lose their livelihood if the factory closed,” said Sourav. “So then we gave up the movement for the greater good of the people,” he added.

Sourav, who is a life science teacher in a government aided school in Panchla, runs a Sunday school which has 90 odd students. “Here we teach singing, recitation, painting and also train the students on how to protect the environment. We take them bird-watching or talk to them about an animal or tell them stories about their environment so that they develop a love for nature,” said Sourav.

Apart from all this, Sourav and his friends run a little magazine stall over the weekend. Deshlaikathi is a magazine on environment that carries stories on conservation. “We had a cover story on this army road that was being built in north Bengal in Neora valley, Chapramari, Pangolkha. The road-building was destroying the surrounding ecology in the forest area in north Bengal,” said Sourav. 

Another little magazine called Jonaki is brought out by the children of Classes X-XII where articles, drawings on environment are published. “This is entirely an effort by the children,” said Sourav.

IFPA’s activities are not limited to Panchla but also extends to places like Jadughada, which has the country’s first uranium mine. “There is a lot of radiation and radio-active waste in the surrounding villages where the average life expectancy of the villagers is around 35-45 years. We have been highlighting this too,” said Sourav.

IFPA was also actively involved with relief work in the recent earthquake struck Nepal. Santu Prakritibadi had travelled to Kathmandu with Rs 22,000 donation money that they had collected from here. “I left for Nepal on April 30 and returned on May 6. I travelled beyond Kathmandu to Masini village, a remote village in north Nepal which has turned into rubble after the earthquake. We distributed food packets to 190 families,” said Santu. 

Last weekend, Prakritibadis were in Santipur, Nadia. “Over a 100 trees have been felled in a garden there. We held protests,” said Sourav.