In a bid to create awareness about the dangers of dumping waste in water bodies, members of a paddling club in the city, including a college student, embarked upon a 135 km ‘Stand Up Paddling’ endeavour through the Adyar river and Buckingham Canal on Thursday. They will travel from Adyar to Maajakuppam village in Villupuram district over the next three days.
R. Chinnaswamy, Superintendent of Police, Coastal security group and K.V. Balachander, president, Madras Boat Club took part in the flagging off of the event, ‘Paddling for Plastic Awareness - To save our water bodies from plastic waste.’
On Thursday morning, members of the SUP Marina club including its founder A. Sathish Kumar, Covelong Point Surfing School founder Moorthy Megavan and students from the fishing community S. Dhanush Kumar and S. Pavanish Bhavanish started their journey from Madras Boat club and they paddled through the Adyar river till Kotturpuram.
Mr. Sathish Kumar said that on the first day, there were encroachments along the route of the Adyar river mainly near the MRTS stations. “One was in Kotturpuram. We got down there and then we went by road till Karapakkam and started paddling through the Buckingham Canal,” he said. The team paddled till Kikkilamedu village near Mahabalipuram and stopped for security reasons. “We collected 40 kilograms of plastic waste on the first day. Though there were tonnes of it, we could carry only a little on our boards,” he added.
The team members said that there are many scenic routes along the way. “On Friday, we began the journey from Pudupattinam township and we will go till Maajakuppam. We will stop wherever there is an encroachment, get on the road and begin at the location where the canal begins again,” explained Mr. Sathish.
S. Pavinesh, a student of DG Vaishnav College, said that he has been paddling for 1.5 years. “We have to save our water bodies for the future generations. This journey is to create awareness among the public about conservation. We should not always rely on the government -- individuals also have a role to play,” he said
