The Clean and Green Club

Ambience

Despite numerous signs about controlling litter, reducing plastic waste, and conserving water, litter is an enormous problem. We’ve visited more than 50 countries including many parts of Latin America, and we’ve never seen littering so ingrained in the culture. Garbage is a constant, some of it quite gross and long-term. The piles are kept half-manageable by scavenging goats, cows, and crows. And by a cultural norm about squeezing the most use out of any item, so things like plastic bottles and bags often get reused (and trucks get wildly overloaded, and the roads are way over capacity). Many stores give out cheap polyester totes that can be reused, though I didn’t see many people bringing their bag into a store. I did see constant trash fires, including burning plastic bottles (extremely toxic!).

Driving, Walking, and Exercise

The most challenging part of India for us, and the most different, was the constant terror on the roads. We are New York City natives and have traveled extensively in developing countries—but nothing prepared us for India. It is the only place I can remember where we abandoned a planned destination because we reached a street that we simply couldn’t cross.

• Lane markings in urban areas are not even suggestions; they are nothing more than wishes.
• The culture is to honk whenever you round a blind curve or pass another vehicle.
• Sidewalks typically exist, but too often, they may as well not—either blocked by huge piles of debris or cratered with deep holes (or both).
• Walking isn’t valued. In most of the national parks and scenic landscapes we visited, walking is tightly restricted to small areas, with very few public trails. There is a trekking (hiking) culture for tourists, but mostly the excursions are half a day or longer—and may include armed guards to keep participants safe from wild animals. Cities often have parks and botanical gardens, some with a lake and surrounding walking trail. Otherwise, casual 1- or 2-hour hikes are rare. We occasionally found a low-traffic road to walk along in rural areas.
• Most people will get around on a bicycle (usually a very ancient one), a motorcycle, car, tuk-tuk (3-wheeled motorcycle taxi), or the super-crowded public bus. The number of people using a vehicle will often be far more than rated. Three people on a motorcycle, a dozen in a tuk-tuk or small pickup truck bed, maybe a hundred on or hanging from a 40-seat bus. The three largest cities we visited, Chennai, Bangalore, and Kochi, all had metro systems that appeared clean, modern, and popular (we didn’t actually get to try one out). About a third of the motorcycle drivers wore helmets, but a much smaller percentage of their passengers.

Energy and Pollution

In other environmental issues, India uses a lot of mass-scale hydro, which is good on lowering petroleum use and carbon footprint but floods large areas behind a dam and disrupts local culture and ecosystems. Most of these seem to be several decades old. India is also known to use a lot of coal (although we didn’t happen to pass any coal plants).

Despite numerous emission testing stations, many vehicles belch smoke. Diesel is the preferred fuel for both cars and trucks, and the older engines were for the most part not well maintained. Our driver kept his ventilation system on recirculate almost the entire time, except occasionally on quiet country roads. Air pollution is extreme in the cities and disturbingly high even in many smaller villages.

We saw a few solar PV installations; solar is more popular for heating water. We passed one very large wind farm.

Food

Any medium sized city has dozens of pure-vegetarian restaurants, and small villages will have one or two at least. The food was savory and rich, using lots of super-fresh cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, chilis, curry leaves, coconut, turmeric, and other ingredients. The “veg meal” lunch was often an incredible bargain, including between 7 and 20 or so different foods in small portions surrounding a big heap of white rice, with refills available. In the local-oriented restaurants in South India, the meal is served on a banana leaf and eaten with your fingers, using bread or rice to pick up the food if it’s saucy, or eating it directly if it’s more solid. It’s a good idea to wipe down the leaf first with a few drops from your water bottle (bring your own or buy one with your meal). Many restaurants will bring a fork or spoon if you ask, or if they anticipate your desire.

We assumed that almost all of this bounty was not organic. We did see organic items in some stores, and also found a few stores that focused on organic—but few restaurants.

We avoided raw unpeeled fruits and vegetables and unboiled tap water as much as possible, bringing our own water bottles and refusing ice in any drinks. Some dishes contained raw cilantro or onion, or even shaved carrots; we did our best to eat around them. I once sent back a fresh pomegranate juice that was obviously diluted. We also took vitamin C and activated charcoal daily, and for the first week, an immune booster daily as well. And pretty much every day, we had at least one probiotic, usually a no-ice lassi/lessi (yogurt drink). We used an herbal, alcohol-free hand sanitizer frequently. And we never ate street food. Even so, we both experienced some very minor gastrointestinal issues.

• C, J, H: My Three “Brogan Words” for 2020, Part 3

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