Recently I was travelling by train enjoying the natural beauty on the way, overwhelmed with varied landscapes that has been bestowed to us. Most long distance train routes pass through hinterlands, away from the busy cities and towns, providing us with serene surroundings, which are still under the control of mother nature as the human population in these areas are scarce. Even if there are any human settlements around they seem to have utmost respect to their surroundings and seldom do we see any garbage or waste materials lying in the open areas. The villagers use natural items as far as possible and don't seem to use plastic materials much. This helps in keeping their surroundings clean. They are more closely connected to nature than we the people living in the cities. For us, connecting with nature has become a part of our outings on sundays that too may be 1 or 2 in a month.
Nature provides us everything that we need. Some might say we create so many things through scientific research but the raw materials required to make them is provided by nature. We are on an endless spree of destroying nature in the name of development without proper consultation and vision on how to strike a balance between development and sustainability. We have created the very things which are degrading the nature to an extent that it is becoming difficult to curb it or even reduce it. There are measures being taken to reduce the damage but it seems to be too late or insufficient an effort to make any substantial change. We cannot just blame the municipality or the city corporations for lacking the procedures, technology, or proper system of garbage management when we ourselves don't make an effort to contribute towards it.
We want our cities to be made "Smart" but we forget that the city can be only as smart as its residents. A smartphone in the hands of an individual would be of no use unless he knows how to utilise its features. Similarly a citizen/resident should be smart enough to utilise and maintain the resources in the city for it to be called as a Smart City. We should take responsibility for our future and the next generation by being able to keep our environment in good conditions.
At present the point of concern is that there is no complete awareness about cleanliness of the surroundings by any age group. A few group of individuals try their best to create awareness but its difficult to teach such a huge population. We can find individuals in all age groups who are aware of the situation and do their bit towards contributing to the wellness of the environment, but what is required at the moment is "to inculcate the sense of responsibility towards the environment among each and every family members first. Once you have been able to transform your family then comes the others, your close relatives, friends and general public." Everything begins from home. It's how parents teach their children which in turn is passed on to the next generation and so on. If a child sees his parents throwing garbage on the roadside then he will follow suit without knowing that it is wrong because his parents are his idols. So it becomes the responsibility of elders to be able to teach their younger generation with example.
It is very disturbing to see people throw garbage/waste in public. On my train journey I noticed few youngsters who threw their cold drink pet bottles and plastic waste out of the window into the river while on the bridge. The same happens in all trains/bus or rented/private vehicle journeys. People just throw the waste on the road without realising what they are doing. Will they eat and throw the waste on the floor in their homes? No, they nicely go and put the waste in the dust bin because they are concerned with their home being kept clean. Then why don't they realise that Mother Earth is the original home which is providing us land to build our home. Why are they not concerned with the well being of the environment? They are happy to litter the place as long as it is outside their home/premises. Saw a similar incident near a tourist spot where the tourists ate sweet corn sitting in their vehicle(as it was raining) and then tossed the waste out of the window onto the road and left. The place looked nice and tidy just before they did that. Once they left, another vehicle came and stood nearby, ate the corns and did the same as if to say "hey, somebody has thrown the waste here, we don't have to worry, we can do it too."
How do we stop this habit? Can you and I go to each and every person and teach him or the people need to realise it by themselves? We need to teach ourselves discipline on how to dispose the waste. A small action of discipline will go a long way in making a person inculcate good behaviour towards keeping our society clean and tidy. We can't expect a few individuals to teach a billion people but each of us need to inculcate good habits and inspire the future generation. Each one of us has to take responsibility to protect our society.
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