Littering is prohibited,” reads a board on the way to Nelliyampathy, a hill-station in Kerala. However, there were plastic carry bags, bottles and ice-cream cups and all sorts of rubbish strewn around. I wonder if people understand the meaning of the word “littering”. But don’t they understand the meaning of ‘No Smoking’ or ‘Don’t Piss Here’? Many a times, I have seen people smoking sitting under the very board that says it is prohibited.
I have seen men urinating in public standing against the walls on which it is written: ‘Don’t Piss Here’. Another widespread unhygienic practice is peeing in public. Men often park their cars on the roadside and attend the nature’s call. This habit is abominable. Bharat can never be Swachh until and unless people stop peeing on the roadsides. However, today, the most unhygienic habit we see around us is the dumping of domestic waste in public places.
People put their waste in plastic carry bags and go for morning walk and dump it on the roadside. Stray dogs and cattle feed on these wastes, and later the garbage is strewn all over the place. If you travel through Kerala, you can see sacks of poultry waste dumped alongside almost all roads and the decaying smell will compel you to hold your breath.
You can’t travel through the state without often pressing your nostrils with your fingers as the foul smell is ubiquitous and forces you to stop breathing intermittently. That is our development and, of course, you can call it “breath-taking.” In my village, there used to be an open space. When I was young, it used to be clean. Grass grew on the ground that was littered with rocks.
There were also black palm trees. The place was very beautiful and I used to enjoy its charm at midnight under the pale moonlight. Words could never explain its beauty. Many years later, recently, I visited this place to photograph the black palm trees for the cover of my book releasing soon. And I was aghast to see the place virtually turned into a garbage dump. The pristine beauty of the place was nowhere to see. I couldn’t believe that it was the place where I used to walk even at midnight. I returned crestfallen.