Students from various colleges, employees of IT majors, volunteers from World Wide Fund for Nature, Helping Hands Organisation, and Kerala My Own Country came together to clean up the Shanghumughom beach as part of the State environment awareness campaign organised by the Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Kerala, on Saturday.
The city Corporation and District Tourism Promotion Council also contributed to the cleaning exercise.
With trash bags in their hands, they collected waste, including plastic bags and bottles found strewn on the seashore.
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As part of the programme, six litter bins, designed and made by WWF-India, were installed on the beach for tourists to dispose waste. The students from the College of Fine Arts gave an artistic makeover to the outer wall of the Indoor Stadium at Shanghumughom. Volunteers from Tata Consultancy Services sponsored the cleaning equipment.
Mayor V.K. Prasanth and Assistant Commissioner of Police Jawahar Janardhanan were among those present.
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In a release, WWF urged the public to use the bins to dispose waste and reduce the work load of the cleaning staff and make the beach litter-free. Kerala My Own Country (KMOC), an initiative of two individuals, appealed to people not to litter the beach. “People should not litter garbage on the beach. They should ensure that the beaches are kept clean and neat,” S.J. Sanjeev of KMOC, also an organic farmer. Mr. Sanjeev said a similar cleaning exercises would be carried out at Varkala beach.