Hundreds of students, including NCC cadets, braved the heat and humidity on Saturday to participate in the beach clean-up exercise conducted by the Coast Guard in association with the district administration and the Panabmbur Beach Tourism Development Project. In all, the Panambur, Tannirbhavi and Surathkal beaches were cleaned to mark the International Coastal Clean-up Day.
Participants collected over two lorry-loads of garbage that included a large quantity of plastic wrappers dumped by visitors. The Panambur beach gave the volunteers the least trouble while the Tannirbhavi beach was the filthiest.
Yathish Bykampady, chief executive officer of the Panambur Beach Development Project, said that most of the garbage was brought by the high tide. However, what came as a relief to the organisers was that there were no tar balls on any of the beaches. These lumps of tar have been washing ashore for the last two to three years, particularly during the monsoon and pre-monsoon months.
