Always passionate about wildlife, Mukherjee first came into the spotlight when she started stopping her neighbours from chopping down trees in her Golf Green locality. “It was quite ridiculous that people wanted to chop down trees since they were offended by the youngsters getting cozy under them. Many others wanted to chop down the trees as the bird droppings made their cars dirty. Is it the trees’ fault that people get cozy under them or that birds perch on them? Where else can the birds go anyway? They are supposed to sit on the trees,” says Mukherjee with a grimace.

But her fight did not end with the trees. When a proposal was drawn up to build concrete embankments along the banks of a huge pond in her locality, it was met with stiff resistance. “It was quite ridiculous. What purpose can an artificial cement embankment serve? Not only would it kill the plankton that survives in the natural habitats but disrupt the entire eco-system of the pond. Another thing made me mad, people wanted to chop off the trees and bushes to beautify the area, and instead plant ornamental trees. Big trees are so important for the environment; moreover there are countless small animals that live in the small bushes. What good can it all do?” says the lady emphatically.

Her love for the diminishing greens in the city instantly won her enemies, from the neighbours to the neighbourhood watchdogs. Pelting her with verbal abuses, often reproaching her on the roads she was jibbed by many for her passion. Yet, that did not stop the crusader for rallying for her cause and her beliefs.

“What people don’t really understand is that unless we take a firm stand to stop what is happening, it will be too late. It already is. What they don’t understand is that their next generation might not be able to see much of this environment. Do you know a bee needs to fed on nearly 20 lakh flowers to make a minimal 500 gm of honey? If the flowers disappear so will the bees, where will we get the honey? Again, the excess use of pesticides is killing the insects that help in pollination. There are places where farmers have to wake up at two in the morning, to artificially pollinate their fields.”

It is to spread more awareness and fight her battles properly that she decided to launch her own NGO ‘Friends of Wetland and Wildlife’. Awareness among people about environment is the most important step at the moment, she feels because good intentions often do not yield result, if not done properly. “There have been talks of introducing new species of fish like telapia in ponds here, but do people know that telapia end up eating the smaller fish to enable only their own species to survive?” she asks in an exasperated tone.

From the fishery department to the marine department and from there to the corridors of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, she has approached all in her bid to save a little bit of the environment and surprisingly she admits that they have always given her a patient hearing.

“Now if I go there and they can’t remember my name, they say, ‘oi to gaach mohila’, and they instantly recognise me. Her NGO, in fact, is run entirely on her own money as she refuses to seek help from any sources. Ironically, she is also a trained pilot, but had to give up her dream of becoming a commercial pilot due to her weak eyesight. “Thankfully, my parents have never minded this. Even my sister is crazy about wildlife.”