Juhu beach clean-up sees more volunteers this year

It was operation clean up on Juhu Beach in the wee hours on Tuesday morning. Among the volunteers at the job was Nirmala D'silva, an elderly resident of Koliwada, who strongly believes the sea is her own and needs to be cleaned up. And amidst the chorus of 'Ganpati Bappa Morya', she kept picking up waste with her bare hands.

"I have been coming here for more than 20 years. I collect plastic waste and give it to elderly beggars who can earn something by recycling them. I come here every year after the Visarjan to clean the beach because it's like my home," said D'silva, who had been warned by members of her family against stepping out. She came anyway!

The beach clean-up drive involving more than 250 volunteers with all safety gears in place, is a dna eco ganesha team initiative. The team had help from Juhu Angels, a civic NGO.

"Last year there were around 100 volunteers, mostly school children. This year there are more college students. Immersions were on till 4am. We began the job early in the morning with the help of BMC. Today there are more than 1,000 different batches of volunteers—from corporate houses, NGOs, NCC cadets, school and college kids—on the 8km Juhu Beach stretch," said Larson Fernandes, president of Juhu Angels, which has been organising clean-up drives for three years now.

The beach was full of idols fished out from the sea and plastic and organic waste left by revellers. "We started the drive when the tide was at its lowest. Around 200 labourers and more than 500 students helped us out. We'll collect all the idols and re-immerse them in a proper way," said Shankar Verma, additional commissioner, K-west ward, BMC.

From six-year-old Jayesh, who tried to pick up an idol twice his size, to teens from Poddar International College, everyone seemed overwhelmed at the site of the garbage-and-idols pile-up.

"We are volunteering for the first time and did not expect such a horrible sight. The govt should cordon off the beach and not allow immersion here. There should be a ban on POP idols. People should start using permanent metal idols or eco-friendly ones, or not celebrate at all," said the shocked students of Poddar College.

Alyson Emory and Abheek Anand had moved from the US to Bandra just a year ago. Alyson couldn't be a part of the procession, but was keen on cleaning up the beach she frequents. "In USA, we have organised recycling so we don't get opportunities like these. We searched online and found dna eco-ganesha clean-up drive and came," she said.

"We have been helping our customers achieve sustainability goals in the face of today's big social and environmental challenges. It's about time we created awareness (with the help of industrial leadership) among people on standards of sanitation and food safety, as well as sensitized them to the risks. We endeavour to save nature by minimizing water pollution and global warming," said Himanshu Jain, MD, Sealed Air, Indian Subcontinent, knowledge partner of dna eco-ganesha.