It was not long back when the
conservative lot, mostly comprising of huge producers, firms and individuals in
India embraced westernization with open hands. In fact, they were very happy to
let go of the Indian concept ‘reuse anything till it expires’ and adapted to
the ‘use and throw’ culture.
A decade back, whenever I visited any
temple, I used to get back home with a small cup made of a huge dried leaf most
popularly called ‘donnai’ in tamil filled with delicious offerings to the
deity. Whenever I accompanied my grand
dad for a weekly shopping, he would carry a yellow cloth bag to deposit the
groceries inside and if a mineral water bottle was purchased outside, the empty
bottle will be carefully brought home for further usage.
Presently, this traditional method of
reuse has started to deteriorate and westernization is taking place at a larger
pace than expected. The ‘donnai’ in temples have been replaced by plastic cups,
shopping bags have become strictly
plastic bags which make annoying crunching noises and degrade the planet
to a further extent.
The examples that I listed were very
small when compared to the most shocking discoveries in the past 5 years,
endangerment of sea habitat due to oil leakages from ships, deforestation of
the Amazon forests to manufacture packing material for Barbie dolls and
chocolates by a giant brand, the use of hazardous chemicals in the
manufacturing process of a famous fashion wear brand in Beijing and rain-forest
destruction adopted by the world’s largest fast food company, etc.
As these issues turned up one by one
in the newspapers, I started worrying. I found it irresponsible and impossible
from my side to let this happen and just watch over things. But currently, I
feel the world has finally started to observe and to be remorseful. The Indian
govt. has taken environmental degradation a serious issue. They had brought out
a law that it is necessary for every vehicle be checked by the pollution control
board, they had resorted to afforestation in some states of India and have even
considered shutting down coal-mining plants in order to take measures against
environmental destruction.
The environmental awareness factor
has penetrated deep into the shopper’s community. The plastic bags that were
given away for free are now being charged thereby making the buyers consider
using alternative bags for shopping. There are several non-governmental and
non-profit organizations which operate throughout the world for environmental
protection who force the govt. and the corporate firms to detoxify their
manufacturing process or amend laws to protect the place around us.
The social media has also become a
huge contributing factor among the individuals for issues on environmental
pollution. People and organizations
create their own pages on social media making it visible to the larger public.
They hold polls, questionnaires and online workshops on such issues. They also
attract the common public through breath-taking videos on the destruction of
nature and about various other issues.
With the advent of social media and
the NGOs, I feel that we are heading towards a better world than the one in
which we are now. If we had continued on the darker side of neglecting the
environment, we must have ended up in a nasty corner. But now, we have very
little chances of falling back as we had been quick to realize the downfall and
resort to drastic measures of environmental protection.
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