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Saturday, June 18, 2016

An appeal through visuals to recycle our solid waste responsibly




"Mother earth is a temple, not a dustbin" screamed a notice board in a tea shop at Varkala beach, Kerala.  The plastic, thermocol, Styrofoam etc which we so carelessly throw away, finally lands up in the ocean, carried by rain, rivers etc.

The short video I put together on World Oceans Day,  portrays the simmering anger of the oceans through the incessant beating of the Dhol.

Watch it at
Oceans and Us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXDcWYK9_oI


When I write "plastic" and hit the search button on  http://IndianwildlifeClub.com, I get a few pages of results.  Here are a few random one liners from those results, which sum up our plastic malady.

"Major cause of floods was Mumbai’s plastic bags choking the city’s drainage system."


"Storm-water drains choked with ubiquitous plastic carry bags are partly responsible for Mumbai's woes."

"The Maharashtra government announced the decision to ban the use of plastic bags across the state after reviewing the situation."

"A landmark 1990 study by the research firm Franklin Associates—says
 Plastic is not biodegradable, it litters our waterways and coastal areas, and has been shown to choke the life out of unsuspecting wildlife."

"The leather-back turtle feeds almost exclusively on jellyfish and cannot distinguish between plastic bags and jelly fish"



Fish and sea birds have been choking on plastic litter



And now, we have the Bengal tiger holding up a plastic cement bag left out near a water hole, as if to ask what am I supposed to do with this?

Watch this terrible episode we were witness to at the link

Sharmilee, Virat and Pandit - Corbett National Park 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkea2m2gJow

Let us empower the rag picker who helps recycle bio-degradable waste.

If we go by road to Corbett National Park, you have to pass a place called Kashipur.  Here, for miles at a stretch, we see plastic gunny bags, just like the one our tiger is carrying.  These are filled with more plastic and more bio degradable stuff.  They seem to be piled on the road sides for ever awaiting disposal/recycling.

Empower the waste recycling factories and give them visibility before we drown ourselves in plastic waste.