Why India’s coastline clean-up is a succour for its battered beaches

The Centre’s 75-day-long coast cleanliness programme is receiving immense support from the public, with volunteers from different walks of life across Indian coastal cities working day and night to reach the goal of eliminating around 1,500 tonnes of garbage from pristine Indian beaches.

75 days along 7,500 km of coastline

Flagged off on July 5 this year by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the 75-day long Coastal Clean-up Campaign, christened ‘Swachh Sagar, Surakshit Sagar’ (Clean Coast, Safe Sea), is being run along country’s entire 7,500 km long coastline with the help of voluntary organizations, and the civil society. It is underway at 75 beaches across the country with 75 volunteers being allotted for every kilometre of the coastline.

It will culminate with simultaneous cleaning campaigns on different beaches across the country on Saturday (September 17), when the entire world will celebrate the “International Coastal Clean-Up Day.”

It is the first time India will officially join several other countries in celebrating the International Coastal Clean-Up Day although it was being unofficially celebrated by conservationists earlier. On this day, volunteers across the globe hit the beach to remove debris and garbage from the coastline. Initiated in 1986, the event till date remains the largest volunteer environmental data-gathering effort and cleanliness event of coastal and underwater areas.

Also read: Land erosion has impacted one-third of India’s coastline in 3 decades: Govt data

Apart from the active cooperation of the ministries of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Jal Shakti, Health and Family Welfare, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, External Affairs, Information and Broadcasting, organisations and associations like National Service Scheme (NSS), Indian Coast Guard, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Seema Jagran Manch, SFD, Paryavaran Sanrakshan Gatividhi (PSG), along with other social organisations and educational institutions have also pitched into the campaign.

Earth Sciences Minister Dr Jitendra Singh had also directed officials to rope in NGOs, children, youth forums, corporates and municipal corporations of coastal states to make it a mass movement.

What the event aims at

The campaign had three strategic underlying goals that target transformation and environmental conservation through behaviour change: consume responsibly, segregate waste at home, and dispose of waste responsibly.

During the course of the drive, efforts were undertaken to collect scientific data and information on marine litter in various matrices, such as coastal waters, sediments, biota, and beaches.

Dr M Ravichandran, secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), said that this campaign will play a special role in achieving 30 per cent reduction in plastic waste thrown into the ocean by 2030. He informed that the plastic waste collected during the campaign would be segregated for recycling. Initiative has been taken by Indian Oil Corporation for recycling of plastic waste.

The campaign has received both positive response and participation from citizens with a number of chief ministers, governors as well as film and sports personalities pledging their support to it. These included actors Anupam Kher, Parineeti Chopra, Sunny Deol, and Aparshakti Khurana

Around 200 tonnes of garbage, mostly single-use plastic, was removed from the coastline by the first three weeks of the cleanliness drive.

A must-need drive for India

With single use plastic being the bane of beaches, a study says plastic constitute around 50 per cent of ocean litter and poses a grave threat to marine biodiversity, human health as well as the economy.

Last year, during a coastal cleanliness drive, 34 Indian beaches had produced around 35 tonnes of waste.

India during the monsoon season this year witnessed an enormous deposition of micro plastics along its shoreline.

Besides plastic, coastal debris also includes other non-biodegradable synthetic materials. These debris eventually find their way into the ocean, but remain suspended in the water as they cannot decompose, only to be pushed to the coast again. The debris ranges from nylon fishing nets, plastic bags, milk containers, glass bottles, plastic bottle caps, straw and stirrer to batteries, e-waste and thermocol.

Instances of huge wads of plastic being scooped out of bodies of marine animals including dead fish have shown how dangerous they are for marine fauna.

Marine litter at key spots

In India, beaches near the Nicobar Islands, the Karnataka coast, northern Gulf of Mannar and stretches along the coast of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as well as the urban beaches of Mumbai and Mangalore coast are known to have the maximum deposit of marine litter.

According to a study published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India in 2017, Goa had the highest amount of litter across Indian beaches, followed by the beaches in Karnataka, Gujarat, and Andaman Island.

The beaches in Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal are some of the cleanest.

The study had attributed the deposition of the huge mass of litter to increase in tourist activities on beaches, increase in e-waste due to the boom in the mobile phone market, dumping of waste from ships near harbours and lack of awareness among people on keeping beaches clean.

The beach cleanliness campaign came just after India, at the UN Ocean Conference in Portugal, committed to protect 30 per cent of its oceans, waters and lands by 2030 in a phased manner.

India has already banned the use, manufacture and distribution of single-use plastic (from July 1).

Plans for closing ceremony

On September 17, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will take the lead in the clean-up campaign at Puri beach, Odisha, while Pratap Chandra Sarangi, former Union Minister will be at Chandipur, and BJP MP from Hooghly, West Bengal Locket Chatterjee will be at Digha. RK Mission head will lead the cleaning campaign at Bakkhali in southern Bengal.

Also read: As single-use plastic ban kicks off, this Gujarat cafe offers food for plastic waste

Besides, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendrabhai Patel will be at Porbandar (Madhavpur), and Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala at Jafrabad, Amreli. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Governor of Goa P. S. Sreedharan Pillai will participate in the event on South and North Goa beaches. Similarly, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan will be at Kochi, and Minister of State External Affairs V. Muraleedharan at Kovalam beach, Thiruvananthapuram.

The Governor of Karnataka Thawar Chand Gehlot will join the campaign at Panambur beach in Mangalore, the Governor of Telangana, Tamilisai Soundararajan at Puducherry beach, L. Murugan, MoS, Information, and Broadcasting at Chennai, and Governor of Mizoram K. Hari Babu at Vizag beach.

 (With inputs from India Science Wire)