One thing that isn’t a matter of pride for India is its environmental situations. The issues are getting extremely serious day by day. The condition has turned into a mess. The population explosion, poverty and lack of education, being interconnected, together are the reason for such bizarre environmental conditions. As an Indian, we can’t say, we have some environmental issues here. The word ‘some’ would be too easy to claim. India has too many environmental issues to deal with.
Almost 65% of the total land in India is degraded in some or the other way even after the government’s endless policies that aren’t enough to curb the damage.
In fact, there are enormous possible takes that could be implemented but woefully, due to misapplication of power, corruption and dearth of resources. Someone who is native to India or even a guest here can easily observe that the small environmental issues are actually not so small. It’s exactly opposite of what is the scenario in foreign developed nations. Unlike people there consider a small wrapper or coke can as a litter issue, here an entire land of garbage is enough to be ignored. The scene here is a bit disturbing. Though the current census shows the illiteracy rate of India to be 26%, the number of people with a casual attitude towards littering is definitely higher. The attitude of the major chunk of people is to just throw it away on the roads. Hardly have they realized that their shelter is sheltered by the environment around. Definitely one single person is not responsible for the catastrophe, it’s a population of 1 billion people doing it, everyday!
More than a problem, it has become a habit to just drop the scraps anywhere or everywhere. Hence, the horizon of the problem could not be imagined and of course, it would take years to change this habit. And it would take years only after the change in the habit is being initiated. The leeway here in India has always been high on misuse. Apart from collegiate studies, ethics related to environmental study needs to be a statutory part of studies. Just due to the soil degradation, every year at least 30% of India’s annual agricultural output is wasted. When talking about India’s environmental condition, it is nothing less than digging our own grave deeper. The water bodies like lakes and wetlands are also being treated badly as well. Industries are equally responsible in ruining the conditions on land, water and air as well. The issue is improper disposal of industrial waste. These wastes are either too hazardous or insoluble in water. As industrial wastes are normally let loose in water bodies, water life is in the danger of extinction.The other big issue is the existence of polythene! The way we can’t stop using plastic in our lives, similarly, we can’t stop the plastic pollution.
Right from tea cups to mobile phones, everything we use is plastic made.
The problem is that we don’t just use plastic, plastic pollution is ravaging environment day by day everywhere. Plastic has become universal enough that every person can relate to it. Manufacture of anything that is good for public and surrounding, should always be preferred. No doubt, plastic is useful in many ways but consequently, it is getting accumulated in the system and causing woe. The main question is, “where does all the plastic go?” The answer is that some of the plastic products are recycled, some thrown into landfills and some are thrown loosely into the streets or our immediate environment, whereas the disposed plastic usually ends up into our waterways. Here we say this without the smallest element of pride that the Indian Ocean is a home to a huge amount of disposed plastics.
Right from tea cups to mobile phones, everything we use is plastic made. The problem is that we don’t just use plastic, plastic pollution is ravaging environment day by day everywhere. Plastic has become universal enough that every person can relate to it. Manufacture of anything that is good for public and surrounding, should always be preferred. No doubt, plastic is useful in many ways but consequently, it is getting accumulated in the system and causing woe. The main question is, “where does all the plastic go?” The answer is that some of the plastic products are recycled, some thrown into landfills and some are thrown loosely into the streets or our immediate environment, whereas the disposed plastic usually ends up into our waterways. Here we say this without the smallest element of pride that the Indian Ocean is a home to a huge amount of disposed plastics.
Seems like, many amongst us are already fed up with the impractical government interventions and are using their own ways of treating the problems. For example, a few towns and villages of Kerala are seeing to the return of recycled paper bags rather than using plastic ones.
Below are some intriguing facts about plastics and plastic pollution.
- Since the last decade, mankind has produced a lot of plastic when compared with total production of plastic. And around 50% of the plastic that has been produced is used only once.
- Waste plastics are swept in the Indian Ocean on a daily basis. Other than the Indian Ocean, the huge amount of plastic materials are disposed away in the Pacific Ocean.
- The total amount of plastic that is disposed away in a year, can circle around the earth four times. This itself says that how important it is to ban plastic, is mostly thrown away in the water bodies, creating harmful effects on water life. Every year, the large number of ocean animals get killed due to disposed plastics.
- Such a large amount of plastic, when gets converted into waste, are thrown away in the landfills.
- Plastic isn’t just an indirect source of danger, it can harm directly by accumulating in our bodies. Our bodies are capable of absorbing the chemicals present in plastic. Also, the compounds present in plastic can alter our hormones.
- There are many harmful microscopic plastic particles that we can consume unknowingly.
- As we all know, plastic takes years to degrade. It is no doubt that how almost 97% of plastic that has been ever made, still exists.
Plastic in the oceans is believed to break down into very small fragments and each of these fragments of plastic from a one-liter bottle could spread to each and every mile of beach all through the world. Every year Earth day is celebrated on April 22 but the aim is not just to celebrate it by turning a blind eye towards its worsened condition. We need to successfully clinch the condition that is safe and livable for our future generation. Because, anyway the victim of these environmental issues in India, is the next generation.