Unveiling Silchar’s Waste Crisis: Professor Bijoya Bardhan and Scholar Rahul Paul Urge Action for a Greener Future

Silchar is a city in one of the most beautiful nature-oriented states of India, Assam. Being blessed with this beautiful nature, I feel it is our prime duty to maintain the greenery of our surroundings. It feels amazing to see many organizations like Recharkha from Pune, founded by Amrita Deshmukh, who work on upcycling plastic bags to make beautiful bags, table runners, and even yoga mats; Scrap Shala from Varanasi, a women-led conscious brand that upcycles many waste materials into beautiful and valuable products; and many others who are working hard to maintain and save our natural beauty. Even the government of India is supporting and taking many initiatives for a green India. Particularly in Silchar, collecting biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste from house to house in separate buckets is a very good initiative, and it is known to every individual in the city. But knowing the many facts about waste management, we are still unknown to many. The main concern is: are we working on those known facts that are in front of our eyes and have been taught to us since our school days? Are the efforts of our government, Recharkha, Scrap Shala, and many other organizations like them enough? Don’t we have our responsibilities too?

Today, November 7, 2023, while going to Sharatpally from Rongpur, I observed many places with unorganized waste materials. Packets of chips, packets of gutka and cigarettes, plastic bottles, one-time glass, and many other non-biodegradable wastes, especially plastics, are scattered on the road near big malls, drains, and also on the main road. And as a result of our unhealthy habits, just a few days ago an incident happened in front of my eyes, and it shocked me. One mentally ill boy was chewing an empty gutka packet, and I tried to snatch it from him but failed. We buy these unhealthy foods and throw these empty packets anywhere on the road, and finally these packets end up in the stomachs of a cow, birds, humans, or in the ocean. It shows that cleanliness is a matter of great concern in our city. We need to think before buying, before eating, and before throwing.

With so much education in our lives, we are so busy with our work that we rarely manage time to think about Mother Earth and the health of our future generations. One very common and noticeable example is that after the government provides two buckets at home, many people still use one for waste storage and the other for keeping water or doing other household tasks, which is very unfortunate. Hence, the garbage collectors are also not maintaining proper waste collection, which makes it challenging to separate biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes, and the government’s initiative went in vain.

Sharing another incident: A few days back on the way to Kabuganj Road, I saw hundreds of single-use plastic cups strewn on both sides of the road.  After a short distance, I noticed that some individuals were distributing fruit juices for free, and many passersby, after drinking the juice, threw those glasses on the roadside. I saw a similar incident again at another festival, now it is on the side of one of the busiest roads of Silchar. Here also the same situation, people throwing glasses here and there without any hesitation. Nowadays, it has become a common habit to throw plastic bottles, chips packets, and fruit juice packets anywhere on the road, and during the rainy season, when the drains get blocked due to our irresponsibilities, whom do we blame? The garbage we are producing will surely kill us one day. And another villain, “thermocol,” is also not eco-friendly. Please, please! Don’t use it for decorative purposes. This year in Durga Puja, I have seen many pandals decorated using eco-friendly materials like crop straw and bamboo. A few days ago, during Kali puja, I saw many pandals in Silchar where eco-friendly items like bamboo sticks, jhapi, and gamcha were used nicely to decorate the pandals. These innovative ideas need to be appreciated, and we can always get inspiration from them and apply it when we organize our own events.

I believe that to bring about some change, we need to change ourselves first. We are now at a stage where saying no to non-degradable things is not always possible, but we can reduce the load on Mother Earth by adopting a few new and good habits in our daily lives. Let’s try to minimize the use of those single-use products by carrying at least one small water bottle and one bag when we go out and avoiding packaged food. Let’s use dustbins regularly and effectively at home and at our workplace. Big functions like weddings and religious occasions produce lots of waste. According to an article in Hindustan Times, a typical three-day wedding creates about 700 to 800 kg of wet waste and 1,500 kg of dry waste. Let’s be a little mindful while dealing with these issues. Let’s educate ourselves and others with sustainable development and do small things rightly at home and in our surroundings to keep the beauty of nature. Dear all, Mother Earth is suffering a lot; please save her before it is too late. And also a special urge to the district administration to take strict action against those who violate the waste management rules and also keep dustbins in the road at regular distances to keep our surroundings clean.

This article has been penned by Bijoya Bardhan, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Gurucharan College, Silchar, and Rahul Paul, Research Scholar, Department of Mathematics, NIT Silchar