India's German Garbage Picker
In a refreshing display of civic responsibility, a German tourist showed the locals his commitment to clean up a little part of
the Panchmarhi forest in Madhya Pradesh.
Forty-six-year-old Joerg Edelmann stayed 25 days at the hill station in Panchmari area of Madhya Pradesh. Each day he used to walk to the local attraction, the Bee Falls, and pick up the trash left behind by the tourists, collect it in bags.
This is near the Satpura Tiger Reserve. On spotting this, many local tourists felt embarrassed and joined him in picking up the litter. Nearly 600 kg of trash was collected by Joerg and left at the park for disposal by the authorities, who at the time of this writing, are yet to take action for its disposal.
Kudos to this German. Hope his efforts prove to be long lasting, waking up the locals to the mounting trash.
Most travelers to India and for the locals themselves, the sight of litter and garbage strewn around is quite disconcerting. Primary reason for this is the failure of the local administration to clean up the streets - they are primarily busy in just trying to earn their salaries not do any work!
Traditionally India has lived with a culture of recycling, reusing the resources. Industrial waste is a recent phenomenon and even newer is the advent of consumerist way of life which is leaving in its wake a trail of plastic packaging, which is hard to dispose.
Hence efforts of the German tourist, seemingly a drop in the ocean, will help in educating the locals.
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