People celebrate World Environment Day in Jaipur in many ways. A few of these are tree plantations, forwarding environment conservation messages on social media, cleanliness drives, talk shows by conservators, and car rallies to spread environmental awareness to name a few. Are these activities creating any impact and change? Sadly, NO! The fact is humans are bound by habits. We don’t like altering our lifestyle which results in discomfort. A critical question is what are we accomplishing at our personal level for the environment?
Environmental Issues in Jaipur
Let me highlight some of the environmental issues people are facing in Jaipur.
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Garbage On Nahargarh Fort Road
I captured this picture on a road that leads to the Nahargarh Fort. This 6 Km road is Jaipur’s biggest “Open Air Bar”.
Residents love driving to the fort with friends & enjoy drinks with awesome city views from Nahargarh Hills. This is what draws people to Nahargarh hills
While everyone is free to enjoy in their own ways, throwing trash by way of empty bottles, wrappers, and plastic glasses is not a sign of a sane person. One can find humongous trash lying on either side of Nahargarh Fort road. The leftover of “Good Times”? Let’s ask ourselves if we will ever do this in our home?
2. Trash On Heritage walking Route in Jaipur
I clicked this picture at the Heritage walkway in the walled city area of Jaipur. It is enough to put all citizens of Jaipur to embarrassment!
Heritage walkway draws many tourists, every day. A picture from Jaipur Heritage Walkway. Read more about the Heritage Walk In JaipurÂ
Witnessing filth strewn around is a shame. Local residents throw garbage on the street for the sweepers to settle the same. Till the time streets are cleaned, litter sits on the street. People are only concerned with keeping their residences clean. Neighborhood? It’s not their problem. This reminds me of a video I saw many months ago. A gentleman in Mumbai got infuriated with people throwing trash out of their cars on the roads. To teach them a lesson, he picked up trash thrown by these insensitive people and chased them. He unloaded it all back in their car! Not a bad idea!
3. Jal Mahal, Jaipur
These pictures are from Mansagar lake or Jal Mahal, a notable tourist attraction in Jaipur. It is popular among tourists by the name of the “water palace”. Here is a picture of Jal Mahal along with Mansagar Lake.Â
 The Mansagar Lake surrounding the Jal Mahal is home to various species of fish, birds & turtles. Many people throw bread, biscuit, etc in the lake to feed fish unaware that their action is causing damage to its delicate ecology. You can refer to the entire story here in this write-up posted earlier. The newspaper reported recently on fish dying because of water pollution. Â
4. Cutting of Trees in Aravali Hills
Illegal cutting of trees is common in the forest surrounding Jaipur. Cutting trees in forest areas is a punishable offense; an illegal activity. The activity continues unhindered due to the lack of presence of forest guards.
I’m sure the forest department is aware of this problem as highlighted in my previous post about having interaction with a forest guard Girdhari. The Forest departments cannot be blamed solely, they do have their own issues and limitations People cut trees to use the wood to use it as cooking fuel.
Yes, we need to plant more trees, bring down pollution levels, and so on. Can we at least improve upon the environment & things around us? Make a small change rather than participating in press conferences, talk shows, rallies, etc. which makes no difference? More action and fewer talks! Let’s begin at our own level!
You can read more write on conservation here.
JaipurThruMyLens 
I have noticed the same kind of behavior of people in other places.
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Humans are similar at some level, although behavior varies depending on educational, religious, cultural factors. I hope things change for good. Thanks for posting your views… Appreciate it!
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This does seem to happen everywhere. The only good thing is that it does seem to be slowly improving as people begin to understand its importance.
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True Mick
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Can’t agree more. I think people tend to forget that the best way to solve a problem is to find the root cause. It is not a surprise that most of the time, we are the root cause… 😦
I can give the same exact example here… Same story 😉
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Hey Niken! Thanks for offering your view point. it’s true. Almost all current problems are our own making. But we are so used to comforts that we can’t take harsh measures to resolve. I’ll be happy to know what issues is being faced in your country!
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there are initiatives being taken for it and we just need to hope that it works and mentality of people starts changing
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All I can say is… Let this be…let the change come through! Thanks for posting your views! Appreciate that…
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Things can change only if people understand that India is their home and to treat every street every inch of the land as their own home. Would they throw things like this in their homes ?
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That’s true. I hope people realize it sooner!
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Thanks for the post.
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You’re welcome Rupam. 😀
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Very very thoughtful post, in the Jaipur perspective.
Travelshoebum.com
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Thank You shubham. I’m happy that you liked it. 😀
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This is the story of almost every city, big or small in India. But things are changing slowly.
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You’re right. my post was intended as a highlighter and representative of rest of cities. I’ll be happy to witness the change. Let’s be positive! 🙂
Appreciate your point of view ;thanks for commenting.
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While i can appreciate a day to focus on our environment. It will not be solved by one day alone. It requires a commitment to ensuring our footprint is minimized. The pictures above. Are not restricted to the city of Jaipur, the state of Rajasthan or the country of India. There are too many other places as ugly from trash. Needlessly and thoughtlessly chucked away. Sometimes, it seems that for every one person trying hard to eliminate such gross mistreatment of the environment. There are ten others that have little conscience. The garbage that is on the land is also magnified ten-fold in our oceans. So, while a day like “world-environment” might be celebrated? We have so little to celebrate over. Rich or poor. We need to focus on how our children’s, children’s, children and what planet will they inherit? Cheers Jamie.
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What you write is true Jamie! 🙂
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Hi! It’s a very sad reality that we live in, people love to talk & forward messages than doing something worthwhile.
Jaipur runners have started a cleaning drive to do what we can. We clean once a week. It’s disturbing when you’re cleaning & people throw stuffs right in front of you. My thinking is if you’re able to make one person change his/her habit then also you’re doing a worthwhile job. We are seeing some positive signs also like we are now getting the support from authorities, people are joining in for drives & Central park is getting less dirty week by week. Here is the link to the facebook page,the group goes by the name of Team clean SSJ: https://www.facebook.com/groups/956577684358087/?ref=bookmarks
Do join if you can. 🙂
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Shubham, I’m aware of the cleaning drive undertaken by Jaipur Runners club in Central Park. Great initiative. It’s unfortunate that we all grow in an environment where dumping anything anywhere is a norm..and is considered as a normal practice. What happens when kids watch parents dumping things? They grow up with same practice!
I was involved in Clean Nahargarh initiative undertaken by a club once. In my opinion, the change will come when people will change their habits. We need drive to educate people. Sure I’ll join in. 🙂
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I agree with you in total. Hope the future is bright 🙂
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🙂
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India is the most beautiful country, but Indians are a sorry lot. I wonder why we take so minimal pride in it.
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I guess it has to do with our culture and colonial past. It better change soonq
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Nah, we are just lazy, and care a damn for our country. Everything else is a coverup for the above 2.
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I can’t disagree with this!
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I think you have used your photography skills to highlight one of the biggest problems we face here in India. Kudos for that!
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Thank You Gitanjali! I hope people get little sensible with their Outlook towards environment. thank you for your words. I would like to make a request here, just to spread the word kindly share this on social media. I’m sure it’ll make some difference. 🙂
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Such a great post. We need more “World Environment Day’s”
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Thanks for reading and appreciating. everyday can be environment day, it starts with us. 🙂
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