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The widespread use of plastic packaging and the lack of garbage disposal systems is blighting remote mountain villages in Himachal Pradesh, turning the picturesque and once pristine areas, into giant rubbish dumps. Villagers (like we found in Malana) are trying to get rid of the plastic by burning it, causing more environmental damage and a further risk to health.
Nearly three thousand metres above sea level lies the village of Malana. Situated in the state of Himachal Pradesh, it was once a tiny, isolated spot tucked between steep mountains of the Kullu Valley.
The locals live in hand-built wooden houses, and relied on food that was able to grow in the harsh mountain conditions. Hauling rice and wheat from the nearest depot took as many as four days.
Now, just an hour-long trek from the nearest road, the small community has been introduced to the world of plastic packaged products, and there is garbage everywhere.
Despite a ban on plastics here, the drains in the village are overflowing with empty soda bottles and crisp packets, which eventually litter the mountainside and enters nearby streams and sources of fresh water.
Now each evening, the pure mountain air is filled with an acrid smell of burning plastic, as shop owners and other households collect and burn trash around their houses.
Indra Devi is president of a local women's group, which is pioneering a clean up. Devi remembers a time when Malana wasn't swamped with plastic.
Devi has led clean up rallies through the village, but says it is not easy to clean up Malana.
Since 2012, waste management activists called Waste Warriors have been going door-to-door to collect people's trash.
With operations spread over three towns in the foothills of the Himalayas, the group has collected and sorted more than 630 tonnes of garbage in the last year alone.
Minakshi Pandey, a programme manager for Waste Warriors, says most people in rural India don't know the impact of inhaling plastic fumes or other harmful effects of plastic trash.
Local politicians in these mountain states blame the markets in cities like New Delhi for the plastic problem. Like most mountainous states of North India, plastic is banned in Himachal Pradesh.
Pandey blames manufacturers who use plastics too liberally and the government for not having a waste collection system in place.
Pandey says Waste Warriors want to create a system of waste collection and recycling, that is finally taken over by local communities and governments, but she's also urging major corporations to take responsibility for collecting the plastic packaging they use.
Video Editor: Ashutosh Bharadwaj
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