The Plastic Bloom of Kashmir

Once a paradise of rivers and orchards, Kashmir is now drowning in plastic. A personal journey through its postcard landscape reveals the urgent need for action.

- Vikas Thakur

It was a mild spring morning when I found myself driving from Sopore to Kupwara. The hillsides glowed with apple trees in full bloom. Petals swirled in the breeze, sunlight caught the delicate whites and pinks, and for a fleeting moment, it felt as if Kashmir had paused in perfection.

The road curved beside the Pohru river, where only thin lines of green and brown water moved over the stones. A patch of wild bushes hugged the bank, and at first glance, they seemed covered in spring flowers: red, yellow, blue, white.

Then something green flickered in the sunlight, a colour no flower should carry.

I asked the driver to stop and stepped out. Closer inspection shattered the illusion. The “flowers” were plastic bags, carried downstream during monsoon floods, trapped in thorns, and flapping in the wind like grotesque petals.

A kaleidoscope of discarded packaging had created a strange, colourful dazzle along the riverbank. My heart sank. What I had admired as natural beauty was a warning sign: our land was drowning in plastic.