About 29 tonnes of trash were picked up by volunteers on Saturday during a clean-up drive conducted by the Indian Maritime Foundation, Chennai, as part of the International Coastal Clean-Up Day 2017.
The event was flagged off by Mylapore MLA R. Nataraj and actor-director Suhasini Mani Ratnam in the presence of Rajan Vir, president of the Indian Maritime Foundation (IMF), and Rotary district governor R. Srinivasan. IMF vice-president S. Krishnamurthi said India generated 62 million tonnes of garbage, out of which only 28% was estimated to be safely disposed. A large part of the remaining solid waste found its way to waterbodies. The pollution and harm this solid waste caused were seen during the 2015 floods in Chennai with choked drainage systems.
Mr. Rajan Vir thanked the volunteers who joined the drive. He said that the IMF was a strategic think-tank for enhancing the nation’s knowledge and control over its maritime domain.
Ms. Suhasini Mani Ratnam said she hailed from a region that had neither sea nor river but she now aspired to live by the sea in Besant Nagar.
Mr. Nataraj said such people’s movements were driven by passion, commitment and obsessive addiction to the task, and that these were welcome traits in a voluntary organisation. He was working with the Chennai Corporation to set up a model solid waste system for Mylapore. On Saturday, volunteers covered 278 km of beaches and waterfronts in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
