“My mother in her whimper breathes methane; her lullabies are laced with toxicity of comfort. Many prey on the dead, with echoes of the hounds chasing lights and there I sleep in peace, amidst the warmth of my mother and the solace of your poison”.
The rise of technology might have created an abundance of luxuries, but with it we have also generated mountains of waste. Our waste will outlive us and we have become inhabitants of ‘hills of ignorance’.
Delhi produces 10,000 tonnes of waste daily. Much of this lands up in the Ghaziabad landfill just outside the city. The dumps contain everything from amputated body parts to medicinal waste to mountains of plastic. These dumps can be seen rising from afar and their stench travels many miles. Man created plastics only around 50 years ago, but it is safe to say that plastics take between 500 to 1,000 years to break down.
The landfills emanate toxic fumes and carcinogenic gases. The hazardous effects on our environment will last many generations.
( Neal Kartik and Pranab K Aich are recipients of Sony World Photography Award, Cannes; text Devyani Lal )