‘Odisha’, the best kept secret of India, is becoming one of the most littered states of India!
We have a beautiful land with beautiful landscapes, rivers, mangroves, green fields, beaches, forests, mountains, waterfalls, heritage sites, temples, and what not! Just serene beauty everywhere. We are enjoying its lush greenery and relaxing with families at lovely picnics with music and disposables! Food should have mutton as its main attraction and what not. Plastic saves our lives, isn’t it?
Well, we carry all sorts of single-use plastics like water bottles, soda bottles, plastic bags, disposable glasses, and even worse, disposable plates and bowls, straws, which make our life so easy. We also use foam cups, plates and bowls, containers, etc., which are most hazardous to the environment but we love them.
We don’t have to wash dishes! Wow! Just eat and throw. Multi-layered plastics, which are the most dominant polluters, hanging in betel and stationary shops, accessible to every child in varieties and flavours of chips and snacks, gutka and mouth fresheners, candy wrappers, that we throw anywhere and everywhere!
Why? Is India a garbage bin?
“Kahin pe bhi phek do”, “Khidki kholo aur phek do”!! We beautify the entire landscape by littering them! Who cares if they break down and finally enter our own food system, our blood vessels and slowly poison the entire human race? Forget what happens next, isn’t this our culture now? Have fun, leave the garbage there — this is our culture now!
The plastics we use daily are numbered so that they can be recycled properly. Plastics pose a huge threat if not managed properly. They cause environmental hazards like pollution. Littered plastic contaminates waterways as it is never collected or cleaned. Then it reaches the ocean, harming both fresh water and marine life.
Breakdown of plastics releases micro plastics, which can be ingested by animals and can enter food chain. Plastics take hundreds of years to decompose, occupying landfill spaces and leaching chemicals. Certain plastics like Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and Polystyrene (PS) contain harmful chemicals like BPA, phthalates, and styrene, which can leach into food and water. PVC and PS have been linked to cancer risks. Burning plastics can release toxic fumes, causing respiratory problems.
Awareness on plastics and their ways of recycling to reduce their hazardous effects is extremely important. Our children should be our first priority. We cannot be ignorant at a time when climate change is happening, temperature is rising, weather of all places is changing, strange weather phenomenon happening, and there are more medicine shops now than grocery stores!
It is high time that we care for our neighbourhood, and for those villagers whose orchards and river sides we are spoiling with littered waste. We should be responsible for our forests and animals that not only enhance its beauty but also play a key role in preserving our food security. We pay in thousands just to have a glimpse of endangered species. We should be teaching our youth and children not to litter if we consider ourselves educated and civilised. If not now, then when?
Last but not the least, my question to all is, don’t you see littered waste everywhere? Doesn’t it bother you? Who is responsible for cleaning it? The sarpanch, the tahsildar, the sub-collector, the collector/district magistrate, the forest department or the National Highway Authorities, the PWD or Panchayati Raj? The litter is seen everywhere along the roadsides of Puri’s cashew reserve forests, or Puri beach, Chandrabhaga or Konark, Deomali or Chilika, river banks, or picnic spots, jungle sides, reserve forest surroundings, waterfalls, canals in urban and rural areas, and just every place possible that should be maintained to make the place look beautiful, clean and hygienic. We only look up, we do not look down as to how dirty our landscapes have become. Doesn’t this picture make you sad?
Where are we heading to, at this speed of polluting our mother Earth? Do we realise that?
The message should be loud and clear:
Stop littering! Stop considering India as a garbage bin.
Stop and rethink before you throw a chips packet outside your window.
Stop! Think! Stop, for the sake of our children.
On the eve of India’s independence, Mahatma Gandhi was asked whether he thought the country could follow the British model of industrial development. His response was very relevant in today’s context — “It took Britain half the resources of this planet to achieve its prosperity. How many planets will India require for development?”
About 700 million out of 1.1 billion population live in rural areas and are directly dependent on climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, forests and fisheries. They derive their subsistence and livelihood from natural resources such as water, biodiversity and grasslands. Therefore, pollution affects their livelihood as toxins leach the agricultural lands, water bodies and finally rivers and oceans. They affect productivity and hence livelihood. They cause health hazard to all organisms including humans who are most effected being at the top of the food chain.
“As we sow, so we reap”!
