Field Trip For Awareness

pallikaranai visit :

Do field trips always mean going to pretty places, having picnics, having fun and taking beautiful pictures?
NO. I knew this only when we were taken on a filed trip to a marsh land called pallikaranai. You might think how can a marsh land not mean a beautiful place?! Did I forget to mention? Oh yeah. Pallikaranai - used to be a marshland. Now a dumpyard. Actually, before we visited this place, we had a small intro talk about the plight of the marsh land. But never did I ever realize that it would be so bad until I saw it with my own eyes. If you weren't told that this place was a marshland you could never have founf out. As far as the eye can see, it was garbage, garbage and garbage. Piles of garbage. Even worse, people live among this garbage. Small children live here. They walk on top of the garbage. People work separating the waste disposed off by the government. Now, you would say "This is all the government's fault!"
Actually, No. If the government had other ways of disposing its waste it wouldn't dispose it here. One of the biggest marshland of Asia, and a habitat to some of the rarest species of birds which migrate from across the world in specific seasons, the marshland has lost its glory.

The garbage is disposed off here everyday from all over the city and Chennai really produces so much of garbage!

Some birds swim in the lake which is a treat to the eyes although it might not appear so from the photo but these birds might also disappear given the rate at which the marshland is being converted to a dumpyard.
What can we do to make this right?!
Well, there is nothing we can do now to the already done damage. But, we could help the people living there. If they are left in the same situation they are in now, they will definitely die of some weird disease. We need to bring these areas to light these people to light so that something can be done. We also need to find other harmless ways of disposing waste. And most importantly, we as people should make sure that we dispose waste according to different categories. Separating them and disposing them will make many peoples' jobs easier.
If you ever get the chance please do visit this marshland at Velachery. It sure is a field trip. It brought awareness to people like me. I am sure it will to you too.