Journeying through India in the past few years has been a very pleasant experience. The monuments, architectural marvels and scenic delights are all preserved and taken care of so well. But then I did come across some eyesores too... particularly the water bodies. They are misused and left uncared, the result is waste getting accumulated in them.
Edible fish have ceased to exist in these water bodies due to continued bouts of hypoxia. Most of them I am sure are mosquito nurseries of these scenic sights. It was a shock for me to see the locals washing clothes at Agastyatirtha Tank at Badami in North Karnataka. I did try to talk to the locals; they seemed to be very casual about this pollution.
At other places like in Daulatabad in Maharashtra, the locals blamed the tourists. Much of the waste, the plastic bags and bottles are left behind by the holidayers they said. The problem needs immediate attention of the tourism industry.
How do you handle Holiday Waste?
After every festival or holiday we create a lot of waste stuff; left over food, dead batteries, wrapping paper, packaging, bottles, cans and more. Those that can be reused must be reused, if further reuse is not possible recycle them and then the final step, dispose properly. If only the tourists followed this meticulously, these sight seeing places can leave sweeter memories.
Look at this bird struggling to find a neat corner to sip water from. When will we learn?
Read more: Facts on Holiday Waste.
How to Reduce Holiday Waste
2 comments:
Some of us have the necessary civic sense, and others have the grace to feel guilty of buying more, wasting more. But I agree a majority of people are plain indifferent. During train journeys, we carry a bag for our trash (if at all we do generate any). This is a solution within every traveller's hands - what prevents them from practising?
Yesterday we had been to buy groceries, and as usual refused the proferred plastic bag, to which the lad selling his stuff said ingenuously - "Aapko abhi zurmana nahin lagegaa. Ek mahine ke liye woh (court decision) tal gayaa. Mein isliye bola ki ham kyon dar-darke jiyen?"
- It is not yet a punishable offense. The court decision has been stayed by a month. Why should we live in fear?
These site should have clean up days. I talked to a few youngsters there, they said it is under Central govt.
Meaning??? State Govt. is not responsible? or officials of the district not responsible? or you are not responsible?
They see no sense.
Educating the locals, making them aware, is the need of the hour.
Who will do it? How will we do it?
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