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By Rakesh Roshan
In the land where people worship nature and treat plants, trees, animals, and rivers as Gods and Goddesses, India performs abysmally low on environmental indicators. India is the second most polluted country after China. Moreover, 21 out of 30 cities around the world with the worst air quality are in India (Regan, 2020). According to the IQAir quality index, Kolkata is the second most polluted city while Delhi is the fourth most polluted city in the world. The water quality index is also very similar, where India ranks 122th out of 122 countries worldwide. According to research by the World Research Institute, India has lost more than 1.6 million hectares of forest cover during the 2001-18 period, the lost area being equivalent to four times the size of Goa.
Plastic clean-up brings crocodiles back to Indian river
Crocodiles are not Sneha Shahi’s favourite animal, but every time she sees one now she smiles. And she sees plenty.
Sneha led a campaign to clean up the filthy river, stuffed with plastic waste, that winds its way through the campus of Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Gujarat, India. Ridding the river of plastic had an unexpected outcome – bringing crocodiles back.
“We used to joke about how there can be a crocodile in our college’s stream, ‘it s not possible, it s not safe!’ Then we realized it
not being there was the issue … not the other way around. It s his habitat and we’ve ruined it and we ought to do whatever we can to revive this ecosystem,” she told the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in an interview.