Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

Cops along Nepal border on alert to arrest Honeypreet

- The author is Founder and Director, Chintan Environmen­tal Research and Action Group

Photograph­s of jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s adopted daughter Honeypreet Insan have been pasted at police stations bordering Nepal and the law and order machinery is on alert to ensure she does not sneak into the neighbouri­ng country.

The police stations of Kapilvastu, Mohana, Shohratgar­h and Debarua have been alerted,SP, Siddharth Nagar, Satyendra Kumar said on Sunday.Honeypreet’s photograph­s have been pasted at these police stations, the official said. PTI Last week, a friend asked me why I was bothered about plastics. Sewage, he said, is a much bigger problem. Plastics will at least flow into the river, but sewage kills us, he added.

This left me confounded, because yes, sewage is a huge crisis in India, but one environmen­tal challenge doesn’t trump the other. But my friend, with a very high empathy towards nature and an excellent, rational mind, pushed me to think.

I didn’t agree and used data to add onto my arguments.Then, a shocking new global report by Orb Media told us most places in the world, even if they claim drinking quality tap water, supply plastic-contaminat­ed water.

In fact, of the many samples tested across Delhi, United States, Beirut, Jakarta, Europe (various), Kampala and Quito had plastic. In all, 83% of the global samples contained plastics. And 82% of the New Delhi samples contained micro-plastics. These plastics come into our water through many sources. These range from microplast­ics in our face cleansers and other cosmetics, to plastic we end up dumping into our rivers, which break up over time. There’s more research needed, but we know, like sea turtles, humans are also ingesting plastics. This doesn’t make plastics more important, but it underscore­s the complexity of an ecosystem where humans dump all kinds of waste, mostly seen in sewage and trash. It is this complexity that we must acknowledg­e, explore and embrace.

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