Condoms, cigarette butts in immersion debris in Mumbai

Volunteers participating in the International Coastal Clean-up (ICC) Day at Dadar Chowpatty, post Ganesh immersions, were expecting to find discarded flower decorations, thermocol, broken pieces of the idols etc, washed up on the beach. However, to their surprise, the most common junk thrown by Mumbaikars in the beach were condoms and cigarette butts. Volunteers were also in for a rude shock -- a dead dog wrapped up in a plastic bag which had also washed up ashore.

The clean-up, which started at 8.30am on Saturday, ended at 11.30am. Over 400 volunteers, along with officials from the Coast Guard, took part in the ICC operation, which apart from clean-up, involves compiling a record of the debris thrown on beaches across the coastline. The data is summarised and then submitted to the Ocean Conservancy Institute, Washington, an international organisation, involved in compiling and researching the data on trash found at beaches and water bodies worldwide.

The global movement saw participation from various cities including Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur etc.

Mayor Shraddha Jadhav also made a brief appearance at the clean-up site. “We were able to clean up an entire portion of the stretch. However, due to the tide coming in, we had to wrap up operations by 11.30 am. When we visited the spot after some time during low tide, we saw that the tide had brought in more junk,” said Raveena Joseph, zone captain, ICC Mumbai who is coordinating the clean-up operations for Mumbai.

The data collected will be submitted to Pune coordinator Commander Rajan Veer, who is in-charge of data collection across India. “We will be sending the data before September 30. Meanwhile, we are planning to arrange some more clean-up operations in Juhu as well,” said Joseph.