By Armaan Malhotra Goa’s wetlands and mudflats are some of my favourite places to photograph birds. You arrive early, often before the surroundings are fully awake, and wait. A sandpiper appears along the water’s edge. A tern flies overhead. A wader begins searching through the mud for its breakfast. On
By Armaan Malhotra Goa’s wetlands and mudflats are some of my favourite places to photograph birds. You arrive early, often before the surroundings are fully awake, and wait. A sandpiper appears along the water’s edge. A tern flies overhead. A wader begins searching through the mud for its breakfast. On one recent birding visit, however, something else kept entering my frame. Plastic.There were bottles, wrappers, pieces of discarded plastic and fishing waste scattered across the mudflat. Birds were moving between them as they searched for food. For us, it was garbage. For them, it had become part of their habitat. That distinction disturbed me. Wetlands and mudflats are vital feeding and resting grounds for resident as well as migratory birds. Waders depend on these shallow ecosystems for food. Yet when we litter these
