Leading up toWorld Environment Daytoday, the air has been thick with talk of everything environment and environmental. There are seminars, interviews, panel discussions, school drives, awareness walks and ubiquitous #GreenPledge selfies. It’s all very commendable; at times, even inspiring. Until you zoom out and take a wider look. Because despite all the noise, genuine environmental awareness in India still feels like a bit of a stretch.

You can talk about climate change, air pollution and the need to save our rivers till you’re blue in the face. But the truth is, vast sections of the population haven’t even opened the metaphorical pamphlet. The crisis isn’t just environmental – it’s a communication breakdown, a disconnect between policy and practice, between slogans and understanding, between lip service and lived reality.

‘Snow Yard‘ is one striking illustration of this ‘conundrum’. Located just off Kishangarh, a town renowned for its exquisite miniature paintings and known as Asia’s largest marble hub, ‘Rajasthan’s Switzerland’ is no Jungfrau. It’s a massive dumping ground for marble slurry – a thick, pasty byproduct created when marble is cut and polished.

This slurry is a grim cocktail: fine marble dust, water, and often chemicals used during processing. Each year, the marble industry in this region produces nearly 30 mn tonnes of this waste. And much of it ends up right here, dumped in the open.

In 2008, Rajasthan allotted a large area to Kishangarh Marble Association (KMA) for slurry dumping. For the first few years, it remained a desolate, chalky wasteland. Craters and pits dotted the surface. During monsoon, these would fill with rainwater, giving the area a strange, otherworldly look.

Then came the turning point. In 2014, a pre-wedding photoshoot took place on this surreal terrain – and it went viral. The pristine white backdrop, with its rounded contours and snow-like gleam, made for dreamy, cinematic images, for some. People were enchanted. And Snow Yard became an unexpected star. It transformed from an industrial dumping yard into a full-blown ‘aesthetic destination’, if bloggers are to be believed.

It soon turned into a magnet for film shoots, music videos, TV serials, influencer reels and destination weddings. KMA started charging fees for access, and local entrepreneurs jumped in. Food stalls and play areas popped up. The dumping ground became an event venue.

Today, if you carry a DSLR, you pay ₹500 for a day’s visit. A pre-wedding shoot costs ₹5,100 a day. Commercial shoot prices get even higher – ₹21,000 a day is charged for music videos. Nora Fatehi shot ‘Chhor Denge’ here. Honey Singh and Nushrratt Bharuccha filmed the ‘Saiyaan Ji’ music video. Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor performed atop the slurry mounds for ‘Dus Bahane 2.0’ in Baaghi 3.

But under the gloss lies something toxic. Numerous studies have pointed to the environmental fallout of improper slurry disposal. Water channels have been disrupted, groundwater contaminated, and the air, particularly on dry windy days, turns thick with fine particulate matter.

Dried slurry, once airborne, becomes a serious health hazard. Locals – especially workers in the marble industry – are vulnerable. A Central University of Rajasthan study found that 84% of marble workers reported throat problems, and 70% suffered from breathing difficulties. Silicosis, a slow-killing, incurable lung disease caused by inhaling fine silica particles, is rampant. This is not just an eyesore – it’s an ongoing public health emergency.

Efforts have been made to reuse slurry waste. For every 10 trucks that arrive at the dumping yard, one reportedly leaves for Morbi in Gujarat with a load of waste. And, yet, Snow Yard continues to thrive. Families come for weekend outings, children play in areas set up just metres from toxic waste, and couples strike cinematic poses – the famous SRK arms-wide-open stance being a crowd favourite. Not a single face mask in sight. Not one official sign warning of health hazards.

Snow Yard isn’t just environmental destruction. It’s a celebration of ignorance. A disaster dressed up as social media backdrop. The site sits right under the nose of the administration – unbothered, expanding and silently hazardous – while Instagram reels and wedding blogs hail it as a ‘hidden gem’. This charade must end.

In a way, Snow Yard perfectly captures the national approach to the environment: spectacle over science, zero accountability. This is where we are – grinning through the haze, camera-ready, as if the apocalypse were just another filter.