During the first 20 days of the ongoing 75-day coastal cleanup effort, more than 200 tonnes of trash, primarily single-use plastic, have been retrieved from the sea beaches, according to Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Earth Sciences.
A 75-day coastal clean-up campaign was earlier launched by the union government on July 5th. It is being carried out in the following locations: Digha and Haldiya in West Bengal; Bhawanipatna in Odisha Paschim; Thiruvananthapuram and Manjeshwar in Kasaragod district of Kerala; AsmawatiGhat in Porbandar and Gir; Somnath in Gujarat; Mangalore and Udupi in Karnataka.
In conjunction with Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations in India commemorating the 75th anniversary of the country’s independence, the government also plans to organise a large clean-up effort on September 17 at 75 beaches throughout the nation with 75 volunteers for every kilometre of coastline. In addition, the national government touts it as the world’s first and longest-running coastline cleanup initiative.
In order to turn the campaign into a Jan Andolan, the minister instructed the officials to enlist the help of NGOs, citizen groups, children’s and youth forums, businesses, non-profit organisations, consular personnel, and municipal corporations in the coastal states as Dr. Singh attended a review meeting of the campaign.
Apart from clearing trash from the seashores, Dr. Singh stated that in the previous 20 days, “beach cleaning and plantation, campaign promise, nukkad natak, cycle rally for plastic se azadi, and enlightenment of local populations about the coastal clean-up campaign were carried out.”
Image Credit: Pew Charitable Trust
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