Fisherman Babu
Sahni, 30, and his son
Himanshu Kumar
Sahni, eight, approach
a bank on the Punpun
River, a Ganges tribu-
tary. Throughout rural
India, trash collection is
rare, and ad hoc dump
sites like this one are
common. Most plastic
waste in the ocean
gets there by washing
off the land.
A National
Geographic
expedition
set out to
document
the extent
of plastic
pollution in
the river—and
its sources
on land.