Garbage is invading not only the cities and villages of Kerala, but its coasts as well, and the problem is assuming grave proportions.
The five tonnes of trash washed ashore Kovalam this week with the onset of monsoon exposed the high levels of pollution that the coasts are subjected to and the new threat facing the State.
Last monsoon too, large quantities of trash had were deposited on the coast, raising concern among fishers, citizens, and the civic authorities. But this year, it has been on an unprecedented scale, prompting calls for fire-fighting measures to prevent plastic from getting into fragile environment zones.
Torn fishing nets, discarded clothes, plastic carry bags of various hues and sizes, driftwood, and plastic bottles accounted for the major chunk of trash. A number of sites along the 588-km coast spread over the nine districts of the State have been affected by marine litter.
A study covering 2,000 sq m of Menamkulam beach in the capital, as part of a national workshop on Experiential Learning with Indian Educators on Marine Debris and its Management, has found that plastics formed 89% of the 6,321 pieces of debris. Plastic collected at the beachside had 36% Styrofoam and 32% film plastic.
Study results
Coastal debris includes plastic and other non-biodegradable synthetic materials, discarded intentionally or unintentionally, and entering the marine environment. This waste finds its way to the sea, does not degrade and remains suspended in water and often gets washed ashore as litter.
The litter destroys the quality and health of the oceans by damaging coastal and marine habitats and harming marine life. Instances of plastic being found in the guts of dead fish and other forms of marine life have been reported.
Thanal, a public interest research and campaign organisation, in a study conducted from January to May this year in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, and Kasaragod districts has revealed that the average plastic litter index for the coast is 1.66 number of plastic pieces per sq m and 10.31 gm of plastic litter per sq m.
Plastic litter along the Kerala coast has been quantified at 17,00,32,429 pieces, weighing 1,057.45 tonnes as per the study carried out in 59 sites in the coast at regular intervals of 10 km in the nine districts.
Most and least
Malappuram is the most littered district and Alappuzha, the least. Snacks are the major contributor to the plastic waste and the number of carry bags comes to estimated at 85.54 lakh.
“The study on the Kerala coast was one of the first in the country to establish a litter index and we are attempting to monitor the beaches long-term. The finding that 17 crore plastic pieces pollute the sensitive corridor is shocking. Future monitoring will help us to work out remedial measures,” says Jayakumar. C., Executive Director, Thanal, who headed the eight-member study team.
Marine debris has become a prominent issue in the State with Cyclone Ockhi and similar patterns during monsoon bringing colossal amounts of waste back to the coast, says A. Biju Kumar, Head, Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala.
The coastal belt around Thiruvananthapuram supports rich marine biodiversity, especially fishes, primarily due to the presence of rocky reefs. Debris, especially plastic, may severely affect the biodiversity, he says. Accumulation of debris can degrade these reefs through physical damage caused by abrasion, shearing, or smothering, and can change the physical and chemical composition of the sediments.
Dr. Biju says degradation of the microhabitats may reduce the resilience of marine life to survive in these areas, both in open waters and ocean floor, and many of them may leave the habitats, ultimately impacting fishers’ livelihood.
Eating plastic now
Yet another problem, Dr. Biju says, is that the debris today becomes microplastics tomorrow and ingestion of microplastics by fish and invertebrates will be carried to humans who consume them.
Society needs to take responsibility of the garbage it generates and avoid leakage to the natural systems, argues Mr. Jayakumar. “There are no magical solutions. Waste dumping is an attitudinal problem and we need to change the way we manage our lives,” he points out.
Joint effort
A ray of hope is the involvement of fishers, NGOs, and stakeholders of the tourism industry to protect marine biodiversity. The campaign ‘OceanLove’ under Raja Gopaal Iyer, CEO, UDS Hotels Kovalam, and Beach and Marine Environment Protection Council has been making committed efforts to keep the beaches clean so that the oceans can sustain us all into the future.
