Photographer Page

Sara Hylton

In Pakistan's Hunza Valley, all-girl soccer teams from surrounding villages walk onto the field for a tournament. This picture appeared in an online story called "The rising voices of women in Pakistan" in February 2019.

In Patna, a boatman surveys the Ganges near a recently constructed expressway. The country’s rapid development has fueled demand for plastics, and its plastics industry is now one of the world’s largest.

A woman in Rishikesh sorts plastic waste by hand, paying particular attention to the most valuable kind: bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, which can readily be recycled to make clothing, for example. Thanks to waste pickers, India has a far higher plastic recycling rate than the United States. But much plastic trash has no value.

A dump in Patna illustrates a pervasive problem in the Ganges Basin: Lack of adequate trash collection has resulted in plastic being strewn in areas where the monsoon rains wash it and other waste into the river.

Celebrants transport a likeness of the goddess Durga through the streets of Howrah, near Kolkata, during the Durga Puja festival. It ends with the immersion of the idols in the local river—the Hooghly in this case. Hindu rituals often involve offerings to the Ganges or its branches. Plastic is banned now in many temples.

The Manikarnika Ghat, the main cremation site in the holy city of Varanasi, runs 24 hours a day. Family members often release floating offerings, including plastic trays, candleholders, and small vases, into the Ganges.

Brahmchari Dayanand, 40, holds a day-old calf at the Matri Sadan ashram in Haridwar. Cows, revered as holy in Hinduism, freely wander the streets of Indian cities, towns, and villages—sometimes consuming plastic as they scavenge for food in garbage piles.

Swami Shivanand Saraswati, 75, bathes in the Ganges at his Matri Sadan ashram in Haridwar. He leads a long-running and ambitious campaign to protect the river from mining, new dams, and pollution. Plastic waste is just one of many pollutants to befoul it.

People in the Ganges Basin use stairways such as the Chandi Ghat in Haridwar to reach the river for a dip in what they see as purifying waters. Hindu belief in the river’s cleansing powers draws millions of pilgrims to the river every year, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nylon nets are commonly used—and frequently replaced—on the Ganges, one of the world’s largest inland fisheries. When lost or discarded in the river, the nets can entangle turtles, otters, and endangered river dolphins. Over time, they break down into microplastics.