Chennai: More than 150kg waste taken from Kovalam beach sand from the east coast road in a two-hour range during the coastal cleaning on Saturday morning.
Researchers from the Coastal Coastal Center (NCRC), which conducted a campaign of consciousness along with local volunteers, were assessed by Kovalam Beach, which was previously driven by the state for international blue flag certification as ‘dirty’ on the clean beach index.
NCCR scientists Pravakar Mishra, who coordinates cleaning as part of ‘Swachhata Pakhwada’, says 10% of waste is a face mask and 15% are items used in religious rituals – items that they have not found in the location of the previous beach cleaning location.
“Compared to our previous cleaning, Kovalam Beach slowly changed badly.
But we were surprised we didn’t find plastic spoons, straws and cigarettes that we usually collected in large quantities during our coastal cleaning,” he said.
“We can’t say that because of the ban on going to the beach because we see more than 500 people on the beach while we are involved in cleaning activities.
The absence of a straw and spoon can be due to a plastic ban,” he said.
Based on the waste collected, NCCR scientists counted the Clean Beach Index (CCI), which was proposed by an Israeli scientist, and they judge Kovalam beach as ‘dirty’.
CCI has four categories – very dirty, dirty, clean and very clean.
Volunteers also raise awareness among visitors and fishermen on coastal waste and their impact on marine life and tourism.
Volunteer groups with school children are also formed to monitor coastal hygiene and advise adults about the adverse effects of litter.