Non-organic waste dumped in rivers and sewers invariably ends up in India’s seas. With a population of over 1 billion people, and a fast growing urban society fashioning its lifestyles after the West, massive increases of waste seem unavoidable in India.
Intro Letter:
As surfers, we here at SurfingIndia.net have traveled throughout India and have seen the endless amounts of waste that scatter it’s beaches and landscape. We have organized and done numerous beach cleanups at our local beaches in South India, but that is just like putting a small band-ade on a severed limb.
India is on a collision course with mother nature and the only solution to this starts with more awareness. Environmental awareness needs to be broadened and taught throughout India. It’s one of the first things that traveling foreigners notice about India when they first come here to visit, the amount of waste everywhere! But more shocking to them than that is how every person seems to be ok with it and continues to throw their trash onto the ground!!!
Every post-monsoon season we find tons of trash that have washed up onto the local beaches here. Most people inland never see this horrific sight, but we experience it every year. The ignorance of thinking your trash just gets washed away and disappears with every monsoon season needs an urgent wakeup call!
We’ll continue to do our best to help broaden public awareness, but please help do your part and share this awareness too.
Thanks!
Your friends at SurfingIndia.net
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Here are some images and links to organizations and individuals who are helping broaden this awareness.
LINKS:
SURFRIDER FOUNDATION (Europe): Helping promote beach cleanups internationally. Get involved and organize a beach cleanup at your local beach!
ALLIANZ KNOWLEDGE: Organization that focuses on Climate Change, Energy, Demographic Change, and Safety & Health.
GRAPHIC REFLECTIONS: Local from Jaipur doing his part to help broaden environmental awareness.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
A boy looks for recyclable materials on a beach in Mumbai. With a population of over 1 billion people, and a fast growing urban society fashioning its lifestyles after the West, massive increases of waste seem unavoidable in India.
Disposal of waste in a country where municipal waste management systems are already weak will become a problem of severe proportions. (Photo: Reuters)
POLLUTED SEAS
A child walks through plastic waste on a sea front in India’s financial capital Mumbai. Non-organic waste dumped in rivers and sewers invariably ends up in India’s seas.
India’s rapid urbanization is aggravating the situation culminating in a rise in waste from less than 40,000 metric tons per year in 2000 to over 125,000 metric tons by the year 2030, according to the environmental advocacy group Srishti. (Photo: Reuters)
Photos compliments of: ALLIANZ.COM