The personnel along with the family members took part in the drive. Rear Admiral Alok Bhatnagar, Flag Officer Commanding, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Naval Area (FOTNA), led the cleanup drive, which saw a participation of more than 400 naval personnel from all for afloat and ashore naval units stationed at Chennai and their families.

The drive with a tagline ‘Fighting for Trash Free Seas’ was coordinated by the INS Adyar. It was organised to inculcate an awareness among the public to keep the city beaches clean along with the importance of Swachhta (cleanliness). The Coastal Cleanup day was established by the Ocean Conservancy, an organisation that works to help protect the nation. 

Every year thousands of tons of garbage wind up in the oceans, with 60 per cent of that being composed of plastic material, a release stated. Plastics last a very long time in the ocean and are in such abundance that there are 46,000 individual pieces of plastic litter for every square mile of ocean. The people around the world remove plastic and other garbage from the coasts. The data is compiled and published in an annual global report on marine debris by the Ocean Conservancy.