The long Republic Day weekend saw lakhs of people making a beeline for treks on the 1,712-metre-high Kumara Parvatha, the highest peak in the Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary in the Kodagu region of Western Ghats. Predictably, the trekkers left behind mounds of litter. It was not surprising that after the scale of littering came to light, the Karnataka forest, environment and ecology minister Eshwar Khandre did what he should have done in the first place—he directed the forest and eco-tourism departments not to allow people to trek without prior online clearances. But the minister’s direction would take care of just a fraction of the problem.
Littering is a habit that we nurture outside our homes, seldom inside them. We extend it to public spaces without realising its adverse impacts.is a habit that we nurture outside our homes, seldom inside them. We extend it to public spaces without realising its adverse impacts.is as rampant as it can get across India. It is as if it is so deeply cemented in people’s minds that it is impossible to dislodge. Throwing litter out while riding or walking is a common act that goes unquestioned, as if it were a basic right. It is like the mind shutting out all signals to approach a bin to discard the waste. So litter finds itself discarded with the least of efforts. And so we get to see so much litter in our public spaces.
We know littering in urban surroundings causes flooding as garbage obstructs drainage. But its impact on natural ecosystems is worse, directly threatening them. Trekkers leave behind nails used in setting up tents, broken bottles which injure wild animals, gums and plastic articles that are consumed by herbivores. Cigarette butts, which contain tiny plastic fibres, are a sizable part of this rubbish. Consumption of plastic by herbivores affects the entire wildlife food chain, impacting the predator-prey cycle. Veterinarians have found large quantities of plastic in the abdomen of wild herbivores during post-mortems.
Littering is a habit that we nurture outside our homes, seldom inside them. We extend it to public spaces without realising its adverse impacts. Anti-littering awareness programmes have failed, as is evident with the persistent littering practice. This calls for more intense and direct awareness programmes, besides steeper penalties and more stringent action to bring in a mindset change. It is not about rights and freedom here, it is about the safety of our ecosystem.