Indian Coast Guard organises coastal cleanup drive along Marina and Elliots beach

CHENNAI: Indian Coast Guard organized a coastal cleanup drive along the Marina and Elliots beaches in the city on Saturday, coinciding with the International Coastal Cleanup Day.

The Inspector General of the Coast Guard Region (East) Donny Michael flagged off the cleanup drive at the Marina Beach.

Over 900 volunteers and students from schools, colleges, central and state government agencies and non-government organisations participated and collected over 450 kg of plastic and other waste, which was safely disposed of.

The collected waste was documented by the Indian Coast Guard officials for further analysis so that preventive strategies can be evolved from the data to ensure ingress of minimum waste into oceans in future.

The officials from the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, the Port Trust of Chennai, Central Industrial Security Force CISF, the Tamil Nadu Police, the wings of NCC, and NSS and several other organisations participated in the drive.

International Coast Guard day is being celebrated on the third Saturday of September every year to create awareness about preservation of the oceans and waterways and prevent damage to ecology and environment.

Addressing the event, Inspector General stressed upon the importance of awareness on preventing plastics from reaching the sea as the marine ecosystem plays a vital role in the human food cycle.

He assured that all the shore stations, units, ships and establishments of the Indian Coast Guard in the Eastern Region shall continue to engage and encourage the public in general and the coastal fishing community in particular to contribute towards preserving the coastlines.

Apart from Chennai, similar coastal cleanup drives were also organized by Coast Guard units based in Thoothukudi, Puducherry and Karaikal under the aegis of the Headquarters, Coast Guard Region East, Chennai.