MUMBAI: From the Ghatkopar-Mankhurd link road, the bio-medical waste treatment plant of the municipal corporation looks like an innocuous small factory with its chimney spewing gentle, white fumes.
Plastics, pesticides and even common prescription drugs are releasing synthetic and natural hormones into rivers and streams, which is leading to unintended consequences on wildlife, causing some male fish to become feminised and lay eggs.
Tension ran high in Mavallipuram village near Yelahanka on Wednesday morning when villagers laid seige to the Ramky garbage management facility and locked up the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) personnel and the facility authorities.
Fifteen commercially important verities of fish have so far disappeared over a decade from the Sitakunda sea belt in Chittagong because of massive seawater contamination by unsafe ship-breaking, according to a study.
Pollution of the Hooghly because of idol immersion has continued unabated this year with recommendations of the central and state pollution control boards remaining on paper and the civic body and the port trust blaming each other.
The already highly polluted Yamuna faces a fresh threat of toxic elements during Navaratra festival when religious articles are immersed in the river as the government has not so far earmarked separate enclosures for dumping the materials as directed by the Delhi High Court.
The excessive usage of plastic bags in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi has become order of the day, resulting in high environmental problems and hazards to human health. The bags are frequently used in the markets by fast food restaurants, fruits vendors, milk provider, convenience stores and other shops.
Even after 30 years of its inception, the modern hi-tech city of Noida is yet to find a scientific way of treating its waste which is dumped at any vacant place.
One needs to look no further then the river that runs through Shangba to understand the extent of the heavy metals pollution that experts say has turned the hamlets in this region of southern China into cancer villages.
Italian authorities have discovered a ship that was sunk by the mafia off the coast of southern Italy with 120 barrels of radioactive waste on board, a local prosecutor said.
