Pune woman, IA and a happy starfish

Look who was homebound on Wednesday’s Pune-Goa Indian Airlines flight: a two-inch long starfish that was being sent back its abode in t...

Look who was homebound on Wednesday’s Pune-Goa Indian Airlines flight: a two-inch long starfish that was being sent back its abode in the Arabian Sea after enduring a brief, forced holiday in Pune.

If it could, the starfish would have thanked Monica Joshi, the Pune resident whose little gesture was a big, remarkable contribution to the environment, the builder who pulled strings and made sure the starfish flew home in an Indian Airlines plane, the environmentalist who ensured that his friend in Goa accompanied the creature on the last leg of its journey.

But the top honours belong to Joshi, the unlikely green crusader who first spotted the starfish in the hands of some students on her train journey from Goa to Pune on September 22. The college students told her they had picked up the starfish from one of Goa’s beaches. Joshi persuaded the students to hand it over. ‘‘The starfish was in a small box and the students didn’t know what they were going to do with it,’’ she told The Indian Express.

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With a presence of mind that ensured its survival, Joshi transferred the starfish into an air-tight glass containing shells, sea water and sand which her daughter had collected at Goa. But after she reached Pune, she didn’t know what her next step would be. ‘‘It needed the same saline water to survive. Aquarium sellers in Pune didn’t have much information, so I decided to send the starfish back to Goa,’’ she said.

Joshi then roped in her builder-friend, Avinash Bhosale, in her Mission Starfish. Bhosale, who knew some officials in Indian Airlines, promptly contacted them and paid a sum of Rs 160 to cover the starfish’s ‘ticket’. ‘‘I did it out of humanity. I found Joshi’s efforts remarkable,’’ said Bhosale.

Joshi then contacted Anirudh Chaoji, director of a Pune-based environmental NGO, Pugmarks. Chaoji promised to help arrange for the starfish’s journey from the airport to the sea. He in turn placed a call for his friend in Goa, Neil Alvares, who’s a partner in Southern Birdwing, an animal and snake rescue team.

On September 25, the starfish was tucked away in a small plastic container filled with saline water and put on the 1.45 p.m. flight. ‘‘Luckily, Joshi had enough saline water, which she had brought in a plastic bag from Goa to preserve the shells collected by her daughter,’’ said Chaoji. At Dabolim airport, Alvares collected the extra-special consignment and took it home, to Miramar beach.

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‘‘It was heart-rending that Monica should have gone through so much trouble to transport the starfish,’’ remarked Alvares. ‘‘Everyone needs such compassion towards animals and other species.’’