Following Unlock 4.0, model Damodar Hegde moved from Bengaluru to the house of his cousin Ganesh Mulky Nayak, a motivational speaker, in the city, and the two decided to have fitness workout on the Tannirbhavi Beach from September 22 .
“As I was running on the beach, a piece of glass pierced my foot. As I removed it, I saw glass bottles, used syringes and other trash in the vicinity,” Mr. Hegde told The Hindu . And, this, he added, prompted the two to take up clearing debris on the beach. “We took up ‘removing trash’ as a fitness workout. With word of mouth and work featuring on social media, 50 volunteers have joined us,” Mr. Nayak said. A video by vloggers Mohammed Eshaaan and Shafaq, about this work on YouTube made more than 200 people turn up for cleaning activity on the beach on Sunday. Within two hours, trash on about a kilometre-long beach was cleared.
Every day, volunteers, who call themselves as “Beach Rejuvenation Army”, gather at 6.30 a.m. and start the activity by wearing face masks and gloves. They do it till 8 a.m. On the weekend, it goes on till 9 a.m. “Waste clearance is a continuous exercise. The deposit is more on days when it rains heavily,” Mr. Ganesh said.
The volunteers segregate trash at source. The discarded plastic bottles, slippers and other plastic items are filled in plastic bags and kept at the parking area for the waste collecting agencies to take them away. The wooden logs and coconuts are moved to a side of the beach. They have managed to move several heavy waste deposits created after waste material is entwined on discarded long ropes. “This cleaning work on the beach gives enough physical exercise,” said Suraj Prabhu, who recently finished engineering. “The exhaustion is so that I get a sound sleep when I hit the bed,” said Vishbhav, a sales marketing executive.It is a short video of the work posted by Mr. Hegde on his Instagram account that caught the attention of these volunteers who then joined Mr. Hegde and Mr. Nayak for cleaning. Among the early ones to join were teacher Lavanya Gautam and her 13-year-old daughter Geetanjali G.K. A II year MBBS student Avani cycles 10 km every day to join the activity. Nidhi R. and Manasi Sheth, who recently graduated from National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, are coming to participate in the activity since one week. “This activity is really refreshing. It has made us sensitive to the haphazard way of disposing of waste,” Ms. Sheth said. Engineering graduate Ramanath has joined along with his school mates.
