We see many photos… of garbage, plastic, dumps, cluttered roads. We look at the photo for two seconds, feel bad and forget the next moment. What creates a lasting impact is the seeing that garbage in reality with our own two eyes, albeit for two seconds. We also feel it when we feel the pinch of its effects – when foul smell of garbage irritates or when we don’t get to walk on a walkway due to cluttered roads. Those moments… yes exactly those moments when we curse others for not keeping it clean.. Unknowingly, do we introspect our habits?
I am back from a trip to Pondicherry. Taking advantage of a weeklong holiday, I was all set to enjoy the beaches, cool weather and nice food. Just when we reached that quiet town, ‘red alert’ for heavy rains kicked in and the unexpected started happening. I know, whatever can go wrong will go wrong -Murphy’s law. But still, what do you think my first thought would be? Untimely heavy rain – unpredictable weather – climate change.
Like I said, we realise it more when we feel the pinch. How many of us have found it absurd to have untimely rains in many parts of India? How many of us related it to climate-change? now think about how many of us would have thought about effects of climate change couple years back, when the weather was normal & predictable?
I see this as just a peak into the future.
So continuing the trip with rains, I was roaming on serenity beach when these fishing nets caught my eye. Me being me, first thing that I saw was plastic.. a lot of plastic. I know plastic is okay if it’s going to be used for a long time, it is durable and can stay in ocean water longer, it makes fisherman’s job easier etc etc… the thought that bothered me was if these nets break into ocean, will the fisherman bring it back? Will ocean allow them to get things out when they are not tied so strongly? Or will ocean clean it by itself?
So many pictures that we see – of the turtles being caught in fishing nets, of the fishes full of plastic in their stomach, of plastic nets floating around in deep sea – Why is that happening? How can we prevent it? Moreover, if someone wants to clean these nets from the sea, is it humanly possible?
I love sea, I love everything about it. We all know how huge it is, we all know that sea decides whether to drag something deep down inside or to throw something out on the shores, we have no control over it. I can clean the sea-shore but will I be able to get those pieces of fishing nets from that enormous belly of the sea?
ecodhara 