Graphic Reflections

Look closely at any city street drain in India and chances are you will see litter in it. Drains in India—meant to channelise rain water and some even to divert rainwater to rainwater harvesting pits—end up becoming extended litter bins some of which are not cleaned for months. People find it very convenient to toss waste in drains and sweepers find it easier dump collected waste in the closest drain than to carry it to the nearest municipal waste bin. Flooding of streets in India after heavy rains is often attributed to drains clogged with litter and many clogged drains end up becoming puddles where mosquitoes breed. Street drains in India (well, look at it positively or negatively), seem to perform at least one more role than they were meant to!

These photographs were taken a couple of years ago in the city of Jaipur (Rajasthan) India. The one on left shows a wall from the historic walled city (also known as the Pink City). The one on the right shows a conglomerate rock located inside a city park. One major difference between these two is that the wall is less than 300 years old whereas the rock is estimated to be about 1600 million years old (yes!). Many (man-made) walls and structures in the Jaipur walled city are in a state of decay, some have crumbled, yet the rocks in the nearby Aravalli hills look as good as new! Isn’t nature’s ability to ‘maintain’ itself amazing?

This photograph of cows on a heap of garbage was taken at a busy street in Old Delhi, in March 2008. A sight like this, not uncommon in any city in India, could act as a reminder that India needs to address its problem of waste urgently. It shows that organic and inorganic waste is not segregated in India, that waste often lies like this at dumps for days creating serious health risks for those living nearby and more importantly, that the problem of waste disposal in India is largely ignored. One can’t even begin to count the number of big and small polybags and pieces of plastic this heap would contain and how many of them the cows would ingest! One could go on and on about the ills of such a sight…