Uncontrolled plastic pollution has become a major concern across the world. Accumulation of plastics creates problems for the environment, wildlife, humans as well as marine creatures. Plastics damage soil and poisons groundwater which leads to serious health impacts. Even though several programs are held to raise awareness and people are aware of the potential threats caused by plastics, some irresponsible persons create litter and cause pollution ignoring the seriousness.
Be it residential areas or wildlife habitats, plastic wastes are found everywhere. While plastic wastes found in residential areas can be collected for recycling, litter found in wildlife areas is left unattended.
In general, tourists or wildlife explorers dump waste in forests, including plastic bottles. While humans seem to be least concerned about the growing issue, wild animals are probably more aware and concerned. A recent video proves so.
Indian Forest Services (IFS) official Susanta Nanda shared a video on X (formerly known as Twitter) in which a Royal Bengal Tiger can be seen cleaning plastic waste from a water body.
As seen in the video, a plastic bottle is floating on the water body and the big cat is busy with it. With the help of its jaws, the tiger picks up the plastic bottle and walks ahead.
Sharing the video, Nanda captioned the post: Why should the wild clean the garbage of the (un)civilised. Please stop carrying plastics & styrofoams into the wilderness (sic)
Further, he wrote, "I am informed that the tiger in the video picked the bottle and dropped it in front of gypsy of the videographer. Message was loud & clear to all of us" (sic)
The video has gone viral on social media with netizens sharing and liking the post. Moreover, several users vented out their anger in the comments section.