Plastic can be dangerous in many ways

Let’s be very careful what we throw away, and how we dispose of plastic.

We all have heard of the dangers of plastic – about how animals can ingest the plastic and can then die due to indigestion. But there are several other ways plastic can endanger wildlife, too.

Sometimes, the dangers are seen quite dramatically. Let me illustrate with two examples that I saw. At Nandi Hills, I saw this Black (or Common) Kite, with a big plastic bag entangled in its talons. It was flying about, desperately trying to get the bag off, but in vain:

Black Kite with Plastic Caught in Talon Nandi Hill

The Kite could not chase any prey while the bag was caught in its talons… I do hope that it was able to extricate itself speedily, otherwise, starvation was the fate it would face.

On another nature trail recently, my friends and I found, in the rain, that this carelessly thrown plastic cup was full of rainwater….and two insects which are called Bombardier Beetles, were swimming, literally, for their lives.

I video’d them and then rescued them… I hope this video will help raise awareness, and make each one of us stop to think how our carelessness could cause lives.  Let’s be very careful what we throw away, and how we dispose of plastic!

Related Articles

The rock on which Bengaluru sits
Bird-beaks reveal eating habit!
Yes or no to plastic bags?
From anti-plastic steps to zero waste management

Comments:

  1. srinivasan dr sundaram says:

    100% correct. why the govt itself is still distributing plastic. the milk by KMF is supplied in very plastic sachets. they might say it is pvdc coated or whatever but in essence it is plastic . why they can’t find a better substitute or do tetra pack. Like we are calling for natural[herbal] hair dye which can not be done with out a chemical[ non herbal] para phenelenediamine a fixative of its class.Like wise i think plastic is an inevitable evil. but its indiscriminate use can be minimised, .

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Story

The trees we forget: What a city loses when the canopy disappears

Bengaluru's trees are more than shade; they are memory, identity, and resistance. Their loss leaves the city harsher and emptier.

Summer in India has been merciless this year, with many states recording temperatures above 42 degrees Celsius and rising reports of fatalities. Despite these harsh conditions, urban support continues for development projects that clear trees, wetlands, mangroves, and forests near cities. A recent Article 14 report provides data on thousands of trees that will soon be sacrificed nationally for infrastructure projects. Those opposing such unscientific large-scale tree felling are often labelled 'tree-huggers', 'anti-development' and 'anti-nationals'. While capitalism accelerates environmental degradation and the world faces a growing climate crisis, societal divisions deepen.  Yet, we give trees too little credit: Beings necessary…

Similar Story

Bengaluru’s flowering Tabebuia Rosea trees: Think green, not just pink

Cities must not confuse beauty with ecology; Bengaluru’s pink weeks are lovely, but unchecked ornamental planting could make the city prettier but less alive.

Late each winter, Bengaluru briefly transforms into an Indian Kyoto, as roads blush pink, office parks turn photogenic, and social media buzzes with claims of a local “cherry blossom” season. But the star of this spectacle is not cherry at all. It is Tabebuia rosea, the pink trumpet tree, a neotropical ornamental whose native range runs from Mexico to Ecuador. What seems like a harmless aesthetic win is, ecologically, far more complex. The history Bengaluru’s pink canopy is not new. Much of it can be traced back to the 1980s under forester S G Neginhal, who drove a major greening…