Operation Camouflage Page 4

  ‘We kidnapped one politician and utilizing Samir’s skills, read his mind – how much black money he had, where it was and how could it be brought back? Later we released him. He created a lot of noise saying even a minister was not safe in this country, which is exactly what we wanted. After a week we acted on the information and anonymously brought back the money to the government coffers. Next day the politician was found hanging at his home with a suicide note confessing his crime and ending his life due to the guilt. While we did not earn a single rupee in this deal, it was necessary… necessary to send out a strong message.’

  ‘After that episode, things were easier. Any corrupt person who would go missing would have an option after chatting with Samir - part with half of his wealth or lose the entire amount. We never met a corrupt person who chose the second option.’

  ‘According to Jivika’s plan, we used those funds to start new businesses partnering with existing corporates, bringing the profits to a subsidiary NGO and finally to GALAXY. Things started running perfectly fine and the combined profits of GALAXY today stands at INR Ninety Thousand Crores per annum.’

  ‘As of now we have a diversified portfolio spanning across FMCG, technology, consumer durables, telecom and broadband services, hospitality and aviation. In pipeline we have some revolutionary products – Solar panels, the size of normal windows that can convert solar energy to electric energy and power half the house. Replace all your windows with these panels and forget having to pay for electricity. A onetime maintenance free investment. As the panels absorb heat, they also cool the surroundings thus eliminating the need of air conditioners. Another revolutionary product is ‘Mini Wind Turbines.’ Install 4 of these on an independent house in an area having normal wind flow and get 24 hours uninterrupted electricity. The third and biggest product is a Green Car. This also runs on solar energy. So say good bye to petrol and electric cars. The future of commute, solar powered transport is no longer a distant dream. The choppers that you came in over here run on solar energy.’

  ‘Another revolutionary service that we are going to introduce is ‘PermaCure,’ a permanent cure for almost all the ailments that get treated by medicine, like cold, cough, fever. More about that, when we launch it.’

  ‘Next comes this hideout. You must be wondering about why a mountain. Well, we needed a place that was big enough and yet not visible to the outside world. Using Nano technology, we could make a car or a chopper invisible. The nano particles revolve around the object at the speed of light. Each particle consists of a tiny camera, a projector, a processor and a memory chip. The particle at a point captures an image, stores it in memory, projects the image captured at 180 degrees and moves on to the next position. This cycle continues at the speed of light making the object invisible.’

  ‘But applying the same for a building was not possible. The particles have to move in all directions and a building being grounded at the bottom makes it impossible for the particles to move from below the building. So we needed a natural camouflage. And what better than a mountain. No humans have ever dug an entire mountain to stay inside. And we succeeded in our plan. We have been at this place for last five years without being traced. The mountain not only provides us a camouflage but also provides us protection. The entire facility inside is nuclear proof, can house up to 2500 people with supplies for 6 months and is managed by just 4 people and 8 security personnel. Of course, they are supported by an army of robots. In fact the entire structure has been built by robots to maintain confidentiality. Our armed force and the security of this premise are headed by the strong man Avanish’ said Aadi looking towards the strongly built person resembling a wrestler.

  ‘Speaking about the work that we do, our first task is protecting the forests. Sitting here we have the capability of remotely monitoring the green cover across the globe through our satellites. However, due to the limited team size right now we are focusing only on the forests in Central India – Tadoba, Kanha, Pench and Melghat. Our satellites not only capture images but are also equipped to capture sound and smell. Any abnormality gets flagged and our forces reach the spot within minutes. Whether it be cutting of trees, poaching of animals, forest fires or even a simple thing like an animal staying in one place for a time significantly longer than normal. Everything happening in these forests gets captured and acted upon. With our hypersonic choppers, our teams can reach any spot within the country in maximum fifteen minutes.’

  ‘Initially things were tough. Danger alerts came in from many places simultaneously, but only a few could be acted upon due to the team size limitations. We focused on one forest at a time, till the belief was established in that area, that any acts against the jungle and wildlife neither go unnoticed nor unpardoned. Warriors of the jungle emerge out of nowhere and eliminate the perpetrators. Results were as expected. We started seeing a drastic reduction in deforestation and poaching in that forest. After we were confident, that particular forest was secure, we started focusing on other forests. And one by one we have been able to secure the forests across Central India. As a result, number of wildlife poaching incidents has come down from 393, five years ago to below 10 last year, across these four forests. We are now extending our vigilance to the Western forests, post which it will be extended across the country and finally across the entire globe within two years.’

  ‘Clap, clap, clap……clap.’ There was a huge round of applause in the auditorium.

  When the sound subsided, Aadi continued again, ‘This Mountain also houses the largest veterinary hospital in the world. And with great pride I can say that our team of veterinarians has been able to save all animals who have reached the Operation Theatre with an hour of life remaining in them. Miracles do happen. None of us was a trained medical practitioner or a vet by background, when we decided to take up this challenge. We only had a vision and a belief that -We will protect and save any animal, come what may.’

  ‘It takes eight years to become a Doctor and specialize in one of the organ systems of the human body. We neither had the man power nor the luxury of having specialists for different organs of different species. But when you are out on a noble mission, when your motive is pure, your prayers are answered and you do get a solution to your problems. Similar thing happened with us. When we were initially doing only rescue and first aid, on one occasion we got an alert from one of the jungles. By the time our rescue team reached there, the action was already over. Our team saw dead bodies of four poachers and a holy man performing a heart surgery of the tiger wounded by the poacher’s bullet. Swamiji meticulously removed the bullet from the tiger’s heart and skilfully healed him.’

  ‘We requested him to be our guru, to share his knowledge with us. We brought him here and once he was convinced about our intentions, he agreed. He categorized the contents into three modules, one understanding the body type, two learning medicine and three learning surgery. While the first two required knowledge, the last one required knowledge and skill. Swamiji has a thorough knowledge of our ancient practice of Ayurveda. Along with Ayurveda, he is also well versed with all our ancient scriptures and shlokas. He has spent almost half of his life in acquiring this immense knowledge.’

  ‘Unfortunately, we did not have the time to acquire and store that knowledge in our brains. We…took a chance. To speedup up the learning we decided to leave storing of knowledge to the computers. After acquiring a certain level of expertise in understanding of the body types, medicine and surgery, our vets get ready for service. Species specific detailed knowledge is stored in a central database and accessed through our robotic assistants. We also store the knowledge of Unani, Accupuncture and other different types of medical treatments and keep updating the database continuously with the different cases we deal with.’

  ‘The information is accessed as and when required. A risky proposition, but the best under those circumstances. It has worked well for us. Till date we have been able to save lives of thousands of animals who would have otherwise died.�
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  Another huge round of applause followed.

  ‘Another significant achievement is increase of the forest cover by 15000 sq. kms across the country, which is slightly more than 2 % in the last eight years. The total forest cover in India now stands at 23.5%, still far away from the Government’s long standing goal of 33%. While we still have a long way to go, I would like to recognize and appreciate the efforts of all the NGO’s who have carried out this feat. While GALAXY has been able to restrict deforestation, it is the efforts of these NGO’s that has led to increase in forest cover. The most visible impact of increase in green cover has been drop in temperature at Chandrapur, a town in the Eastern part of Maharashtra. The town that had been witnessing approximately 0.5 degree C rise every year and reaching a high of 47.3, has seen a maximum of 45.9 degree Centigrade last summer season. Thanks to the growth of forest cover by 250 sq. kms in the 11500 sq. km district.’

  ‘Next on the list of our contribution to Mother Nature includes cleaning of rivers. At an average speed of 4 kmph, the drop melted from the Gangotri glacier, where the river Ganga originates will reach the Bay of Bengal in 631 days. Its simple logic, if dumping of waste in the river stops, the river will become clean on its own in the same time of 631 days. Government has been spending crores on cleaning of rivers but no action had been taken against the sources polluting the waters in first place.’

  ‘Tanneries across the Ganga were the biggest source of pollution of the holy river. We made the state government cut down electricity and water supply to all unauthorized units which were almost 100%, forcing closure of the units. Next pollutants were the industrial effluents and municipal sewage. 550 million litres per day of industrial effluents were being dumped in the river. Municipal sewage generated along the river accounted to 3000 MLD, against which the Government installed sewage treatment plants had a capacity of 1600 MLD. So, half of the municipal sewage went into the river, untreated. We installed multiple sewage treatment plants with a joint capacity of 2000 MLD and ensured 100% sewage water treatment.’

  ‘We did not stop at that and invested in a reverse pipeline to transport the water to the industries. Instead of dumping the treated water in the Ganga, we reused it for industrial and construction applications and balance for watering plants. The only problem that now remained was of the 550 million litres of daily industrial effluents. There were two possible solutions to this problem. Both expensive and not at all cost effective, from a business perspective. One was to separate the toxins from the water and convert it to petroleum equivalent fuel. Second was to evaporate the water and convert the leftover residue into tar that could be used for construction of roads.’

  ‘First was ruled out as, burning of fuel would again lead to air pollution and with the advent of solar powered cars, petroleum products would no longer be required. So we decided to go with the second option which was even more expensive. The entire process of converting the industrial effluent to tar takes 28 days. Once started, the next batch can be fed only after 4 days. So we built up leak-proof storage capacities for storage of the waste which was otherwise simply dumped. We invested in 5 processing lines, 4 in use and one buffer for conversion of effluent to tar.’

  ‘With the second option we incurred a much higher cost in the conversion process, as against converting waste to petroleum. And after that we got an output that was sold at a rate of 1/20th the price of petroleum. The entire plant operations cost us INR 2 Crore per day. And this is the cost for one of the 17 major rivers in the country. Similar such projects are being carried out across other rivers.’

  ‘Speaking about the projects in pipeline, now that we are out in the open, we will have many projects involving citizens. One such ambitious project with contribution from each individual will be ‘Mission My 7.’ Everyone requires oxygen, equivalent to the output of 7 trees. Even if we momentarily keep aside rest of the human needs fulfilled by trees, it is the moral obligation of each individual to plant, protect, nurture and grow at least 7 trees. With Mission My 7, we aim to reach out to the entire world population and make them responsible for planting and protecting a minimum of 7 trees.’

  ‘Next is the population restoration of endangered species. Through Project Tiger the Government has achieved some success in taking the number of tigers from 1411 to 2226 between 2006 and 2015. While the numbers show an upward trend, the population is still a fraction of 45000 that ruled the jungles of India a century ago. Protection of Tigers or any other endangered species is going to require a multi-dimensional approach with government, forest department, NGO’s and the citizens coming together.

  For this we are going to execute following plan:

  a. The laws for wildlife protection are very weak. They were drafted in 1950’s when the situation was significantly different. Though according to our standards they were still weak even at those times. So, we will redraft the laws and get them passed by the Parliament.

  b. Second hurdle is enforcement. Even if there are laws, a person having money and power can easily play around with them. This will change. Not only the culprits, but even the police and judges handling the case will be under our radar.

  c. Forest guards will have our complete support in protection of the forests. This support runs beyond providing them with forest gear like night vision glasses, binoculars, upgradation of guns, shoes, protective armor but also protecting them in case they fall in trouble while performing their duty. From now onwards a forest ranger does not have to worry about being questioned by the law, if he pulls the trigger for saving an animal.

  d. We will make it mandatory to have nature clubs in all schools. NGO’s will have our financial support in running them. Environmental education will be compulsory for all children. Creating awareness and sensitizing residents about Nature will now start from primary school itself. As part of these clubs the children will also contribute in Mission My 7.’

  ‘The next project is going to be fight against corporates and builders exploiting Nature for personal gains. Companies will have to act responsibly. They will no longer be able to wash away their hands by planting a few trees against the tons of waste deposited in the atmosphere. They will have to first bring down their carbon footprint within permissible levels.’

  ‘As mentioned earlier, we will now be taking back our businesses from the different corporates who had been running them. I once again thank them for their support rendered in this noble cause. All these businesses will now operate directly under the GALAXY group.

  ‘This means we will now be having employee strength of over a lakh. And leading them as the Head of HR, would be Aakash’ said Aadi looking towards him.

  ‘Aakash not only manages our current HR function, he also runs the kitchen. It’s said - Way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and Aakash is the perfect Head of HR living this saying. He is an excellent Chef and keeps good care of our entire team by pleasing their palate. Shortly you will also enjoy a delicious meal from him and his team of robots.’

  ‘The five people that you got introduced to so far are the first five founders of GALAXY. And we strongly believe that this is not a mere coincidence, that our names represent the five elements of nature,

  Aaditya, Sun or Fire

  Samir, Wind

  Avanish, Earth

  Jivika, Jal or Water

  And Aakash, Sky

  We are blessed by Mother Nature and we believe we have been brought together for the purpose that GALAXY stands for.’

  There was a long pause… followed by a standing ovation and a huge round of applause, lasting more than a minute.

  ‘While I have tried to cover a lot about us,’ Aadi continued once everybody had settled back ‘I know you would still be having a few questions and we are ready to clarify your doubts.’

  ‘Over to you, just press the speak button on your wrist band and once the light flashes green, you can start asking your question.’

  The first question came from one of the family member
s, ‘How does this team function? Do they still continue their alternate job?’

  Since the time Aadi started his address, for the first time he gulped some water before replying, ‘Absolutely not. They focus fulltime on this responsibility with immediate effect.’

  I have another question in that case asked the family member ‘How does this team meet their personal expenses? As I understand, everybody here works voluntarily and no one has ever taken any salary from here.’

  ‘Let me answer that question,’ said Aakash ‘If they haven’t taken does not mean they cannot take. Till now nobody took salary from here not because they could not but because they had an alternate source of income. Going forward this role becomes their primary responsibility and hence the primary source of income. Money, personal growth should be the least of worries for our team. We are going to break the myth. Working for an NGO does not mean a compromise on personal expenses and lifestyle.’

  ‘So do they get the same pay that they were getting from the place they were working till now?’ was the immediate next question.

  Answer is ‘NO’ replied Aakash instantaneously.

  The person who had asked the question thought, so there is a compromise. NGO is finally an NGO and while it may take care to ensure that their team leads a reasonable life, the same level of pay and luxury might still not be possible.

  His thoughts were interrupted by Aakash’s next statement ‘From the last three years, we have an infinity pay package policy for our team. This simply means they can take any amount at any time. Just two conditions, they cannot donate it and beyond 3 Crores cumulative, they cannot save or invest it. This team does not have to compromise on lifestyle or worry about any materialistic desires that they or their family members have.’