It’s bright and early on a Sunday morning. The beach stretches untouched and empty far as the eye can see, except for a few birds hopping about. And, of course, a group of three women and one man, walking their dogs. There are four dogs in all — from lushly furry to enthusiastic mongrels and strays — nosing around as their human friends stroll at a leisurely pace.
Up close, the scene is far from serene. Occasionally, the walkers bend down to pick something up. Virginie Vlaminck, a Belgian photographer currently settled in Chennai, beckons and holds out her latest find: an open syringe. “These keep washing up on the beach. Sometimes, there are also pharmacy bottles. Every couple of weeks, we see a whole load of brown bottles and injections. So there must be someone disposing them in a wrong way. Luckily, they’re closed, but the needles are in there and children run and play over here,” she points out.
Vlaminck has no way of knowing where the bottles come from, but stresses that they appear every other week, without fail. There are glass and plastic bottles, and bottle caps in plenty, and a host of sachets, all of which go into a 20-kg sack to be emptied in a dustbin, from where it’s picked by Chennai Corporation.
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“Today, we have only half a sack. But yesterday, there were just two of us and we had to drag two full sack loads by the end. It depends on the current, I think,” muses the Belgian. There are plenty of paper cups to be found, as well as a liberal number of beer bottles every once in a while, some of which are chipped and dangerous.
“We see a lot of ropes. And this is dangerous because it’s killing the turtles. We found a turtle dead with the rope around his neck; it got strangled.” These cases are clearly not isolated ones; there’s a reason turtle conservation is a major priority for some city-based NGOs. It’s not the first dead turtle Vlaminck and her friends have found.
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“We’ve seen at least 10 in two weeks,” she says, “We dig up the sand and bury them, otherwise they start to smell.”
“We all walk because we have dogs. While walking, we thought, why not do something?” she puts simply.
Vlaminck has been living in the area for seven years now. Her friends have been here for just over a year. So used are their dogs, Logan, Sandy, India and Doll, to this daily routine, that they know well enough not to go sniffing around anything toxic. They keep a healthy distance from the syringes — as well as the sack they are thrown into — and go on exploring unperturbed.
“I always think it’s better to make an effort where you are; the people know you, they see you regularly, and so it has a better impact.” Having said that, Vlaminck does admit she finds it easier working with children. “The fishing communities do segregate their waste, but it’s the children in these villages that have a more open mind,” she says, by way of explanation for her decision to engage with schools in the area.
The photographer holds talks about the environment at Christian Advent School in Injambakkam, and multiple Government schools in Neelankarai, Panayur, and other areas along East Coast Road. It was the NGO Nature Trust, and it’s founder I H Sekar, that helped Vlaminck get in touch with neighbouring communities. They both assert the huge difference it makes when a point is made through photographs, like the ones Vlaminck uses to talk about turtle safety.
“I also work with The American School, and a local NGO called Nature Trust. The Chennai Trekking Club too works with us at times,” she adds.
“We meet a jogger sometimes, who also stops to pick up waste. We asked him once, and he said he picks up about 2-3 kg a day. If all of us did that, Chennai would be spotless,” she smiles.