Suhani Sharma

Since my childhood, I have known two starkly contrasting mountains: the majestic Himalayas, which I would see from my city Chandigarh en route to the enchanting hill station Shimla, and the far-less inviting garbage mountains on the banks of the river Yamuna as I entered Delhi. The former was a salubrious, elevating experience, while the latter was an eyesore, with thousands of crows and kites circling overhead.

Driven by a deep concern for the environment and waste management, I tried to understand what we could do about these colossal mountains of garbage. I visited a few dumping sites in and around my city, where millions of tons of refuse have been piling up for years. Chandigarh has devoted 45 acres of land to the landfill site, Mohali has 40 acres, and Ludhiana, the most populous city in Punjab, has about 50 acres covered in garbage mounds.

Due to a lack of space, the daily garbage truckloads often spill their loads on the outskirts of these dumping sites. The poverty-stricken people inhabiting the residential areas around these open-air disposal sites are forced to live in pathetic, unsanitary conditions, breathing in foul-smelling air with clouds of germ-carrying flies hovering overhead…read more on NOPR