This is the heartbreaking moment cows and deer were seen eating plastic waste in India.

Tragic footage shows the distressed animals consuming plastic rubbish carelessly discarded along a road near Vandalur Reserve Forest in Tamil Nadu on February 25.

Wildlife enthusiasts warned that this highlights the severe impact of human activity on ecosystems and the suffering it causes.

A 2024 study published in Nature found that India is the world's largest contributor to plastic pollution, generating 9.3 million tonnes of plastic waste annually.

Of this, 3.5 million tonnes are mismanaged and leak into the environment each year, surpassing other major polluters such as Nigeria (3.5 million tonnes), Indonesia (3.4 million tonnes), and China (2.8 million tonnes).

Plastics For Change, an environmental services organisation, identified key factors behind the crisis, including inadequate waste management, reliance on open burning and landfilling, single-use plastics, inconsistent data reporting, and challenges in the informal waste sector.