Srinagar, July 17 -- On a recent summer morning, as crows circled a trash-strewn canal near the government school playground in Kulgam's Kulpora, Mudasir Rehman Dar unpacked his kit: crushed bottle caps, torn paper, a spool of jute string, and a stack of flattened cardboard.

He was preparing an art installation with a dozen schoolchildren, part of a self-organized eco-campaign he's been running for over two years.

The children watched closely as Dar pressed a yellowed polythene wrapper into shape and whispered, more to himself than to anyone else, "Nothing is waste. It's just waiting to be seen."

Dar's eco-campaign is trending at a time when his homeland Kashmir's beauty is increasingly buried under plastic.

According to a 2023 report...