Kastoria: Christmas tree of shame from discarded masks in Natura area (pic)

The vice-president of the Society for the Protection of the Environment of the region and a member of the Emergency Response Team for the Bear, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, was confronted with a horrific spectacle of unprecedented environmental pollution in a lakeside area designated as Natura in Kastoria.

Visiting the area that is the main Delta of the rivers that then flow into Lake Kastoria, he saw hundreds of used medical masks to protect against the coronavirus pandemic, scattered and discarded as – as in a groove near the bridge that connects the villages of Polykarpi and Mavrochori.

“There on about five square meters of land we found a very large number of used masks and other objects (such as plastic cups, bottles) that have been thrown scattered in the habitat. “There may have been so many because there is a bus stop very close by, but nothing can justify someone’s decision to throw a mask or any other object into a habitat.” emphasizes in GRTimes, Nikos Panagiotopoulos.

The latter, in fact, gathered the largest number of them and placed them on a tree branch, typically stating that “we made in the area, the Christmas tree that we deserve. Some of them had already been caught on the branch by the wind, others I placed myself. With this move I wanted to demonstrate the analgesia of some as well as the ignorance that exists in matters of environment and ecology “.

They are traps for wildlife, where the animal finds a torturous death

In an effort to raise awareness of people who have not yet understood the magnitude of the problem and the environmental pollution they have caused, Mr. Panagiotopoulos notes that “if a wildlife animal is trapped and entangled in masks, then a painful and torturous death ensues. Such incidents have been recorded by eyewitnesses. “Birds have also been trapped and turtles”, while he adds that “in order to understand what area we are talking about, these masks were located in the riverbed that ends in the lake of Kastoria. That is, some of these masks have already ended up in the water. “

In a comment on a social networking site, Mr. Panagiotopoulos notes that “environmental awareness must be cultivated from the first years of our lives, taught, transmitted and therefore this will be an occasion to change our mentality. In addition to the aesthetics and of course the burden of the environment with pollution, painful traps are created for wildlife. “We had the plastic water bottles scattered, now the masks are competing with them.”

GRTIMES

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