Around 5,000 kg of garbage was collected from various beaches in the State in a joint effort between Indian Coast Guard personnel and civilian volunteers in a three-hour clean up drive held on Saturday morning.
The drive was held on the occasion of the International Coastal Cleanup Day in Maharashtra, Coast Guard officers said. The ICC is conducted in various parts of the world under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) in the South Asian Region.
“The event was conducted & coordinated by Headquarters, Coast Guard District (Maharashtra) from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at locations like the Worli Koliwada seaface, Juhu beach, Dadar-Shivaji Park sea face, in the presence of senior Coast Guard officers,” a Coast Guard spokesperson said.
Around 7,000 volunteers participated, including members of various Non Government Organisations, the National Cadet Corps, the National Service Scheme, students from local schools and colleges, employees of various organisations and members of the local community, the spokesperson said. The garbage collected was handed over to local civic authorities for disposal.
“International Coastal Cleanup Day (ICC) is conducted on the third Saturday of Septmber every year. The Indian Coast Guard has been coordinating this event in India since 2006. The Coast Guard has 42 stations and the clean up was undertaken by close to 1,000 personnel along with volunteers. The aim is to preserve the protect the marine environment and to promote coastal clean up and a cleaner environment,” inspector general Vijay Chafekar, Coast Guard Commander (West) said.
Officers said that, according to international statistics, 5,61,000 volunteers picked up 16 million pounds of trash from shorelines around the world last year.
“This day is an important in the history of the Indian Coast Guard — The fraternity comes together to reaffirm their committment towards cleaner coasts and ‘Swachh Bharat’ for a better tomorrow,” the spokesperson said.