On a recent visit to India, I ended up on a 7 hr train journey from Chennai to Mysore. The minute the train left the platform, I was at my customary spot by the doorway, gazing out on the passing landscape, with the warm breeze of the early morning blowing through my hair. The tightly packed houses and traffic of the city gave way to the somewhat quieter suburbs and then open fields with palm trees lined up as far as the eye could see. People going about their business, the farmer getting his bullocks or tractor ready for some ploughing, cyclists meandering down dirt roads and children at play, turning towards the tracks as the train passed by, yelling and waving with a big smile on each face.
The one thing that didn't change during the entire journey, however, was the vast amount of detritus along the tracks. Paper cups, newspapers, food waste, little supari packets - everything that could be found in a shopping mall was strewn across the ballast, the whites and colors contrasting starkly with the dull grey. I might be accused of misguided nostalgia if I were to say that back when I was growing up, things were not so bad - but to some extent, we must recognize that with India becoming a more affluent society, the corresponding waste generation that goes hand in hand with development simply cannot be ignored. I recall an article some years ago in a magazine that compared the trash from a city dwelling family, which was tends of kilograms a week, to one that lived in a village, which was an order of magnitude lower. I would bet that since then, both numbers have gone up, perhaps disproportionately in favor of the village dweller, who now has access to more "stuff".
Even the often cited Indian tendency to reuse materials because of a scarcity of resources is coming under attack - the ease with which things can be thrown away makes it that much more difficult to make a case to recycle or conserve. The same problem hit the west after the second world war, a time when most families were being encouraged to be thrifty and not squander any precious raw materials. Old tin cans were being recycled by the millions so that the military could have enough to win the war. In a time of peace, the threat of environmental pollution and general wastage is clearly not a strong driving force.
The problem in India is made worse by the fact that proper waste disposal rarely exists, but even so when it does, people are somehow unwilling to use it. The millennia old taboo against waste handling is yet to disappear, and people would much rather not have to deal with the problem than confront it head on. Unlike the US, we don't have the benefit of vast tracts of empty land that can be used to landfill these materials - even if we did, that should not be an excuse to fill them up!
So back to the challenge of the trash along the railway line - I'm sure the people who live in the towns and villages are less than pleased with the donations made by passengers who are passing by. If you're willing to take in the view, then spoiling it should be the last thing in your mind.
The one thing that didn't change during the entire journey, however, was the vast amount of detritus along the tracks. Paper cups, newspapers, food waste, little supari packets - everything that could be found in a shopping mall was strewn across the ballast, the whites and colors contrasting starkly with the dull grey. I might be accused of misguided nostalgia if I were to say that back when I was growing up, things were not so bad - but to some extent, we must recognize that with India becoming a more affluent society, the corresponding waste generation that goes hand in hand with development simply cannot be ignored. I recall an article some years ago in a magazine that compared the trash from a city dwelling family, which was tends of kilograms a week, to one that lived in a village, which was an order of magnitude lower. I would bet that since then, both numbers have gone up, perhaps disproportionately in favor of the village dweller, who now has access to more "stuff".
Even the often cited Indian tendency to reuse materials because of a scarcity of resources is coming under attack - the ease with which things can be thrown away makes it that much more difficult to make a case to recycle or conserve. The same problem hit the west after the second world war, a time when most families were being encouraged to be thrifty and not squander any precious raw materials. Old tin cans were being recycled by the millions so that the military could have enough to win the war. In a time of peace, the threat of environmental pollution and general wastage is clearly not a strong driving force.
The problem in India is made worse by the fact that proper waste disposal rarely exists, but even so when it does, people are somehow unwilling to use it. The millennia old taboo against waste handling is yet to disappear, and people would much rather not have to deal with the problem than confront it head on. Unlike the US, we don't have the benefit of vast tracts of empty land that can be used to landfill these materials - even if we did, that should not be an excuse to fill them up!
So back to the challenge of the trash along the railway line - I'm sure the people who live in the towns and villages are less than pleased with the donations made by passengers who are passing by. If you're willing to take in the view, then spoiling it should be the last thing in your mind.
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