India, April 9 -- This past winter, I drove on the Srinagar-Gulmarg Road in Kashmir four times after an average gap of two weeks between each trip. On each trip I found over 70 heaps of variegated plastic waste which included discarded snack packets, fast-food wrappers and single-use packaging lying scattered along the roadsides from Narbal to Tangmarg, roughly 10 km long distance on the Srinagar-Gulmarg Road.

Most of the heaps bore clear signs of what happens to the plastic waste as charred plastic and ash could be seen at some dumping spots, evidence that the waste was burnt. During one of the trips, I even witnessed plastic waste was being burnt at a government-run disposal site at Gulmarg. National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered co...