'To clean or not to clean? That is the question...' asked by Chennai Trekking Club. And more than 880 Chennaiites, Indians and citizens of the world answered, “Let's clean!”
Chennai Coastal Cleanup was an initiative by Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) to clean up a 15-km stretch of the Chennai coast from Marina till Injambakkam last weekend. The initiative by CTC, a non-profit amateur trekking club, showed meticulous planning and spawned over a month with help from its volunteer members.
Plastic everywhere
The entire stretch was divided into three zones viz. North, Mid and South fronts with five teams in each zones. Each team had a catchy name too like Sand Storm, Chennai Ridley, Beach Warriors (my team!) and for a French touch, Les Balayeuses. The volunteers were asked to assemble at one of the predetermined 11 pick-up points across Chennai around at five in the morning. From there on, each went to their respective locations. Each team had two leads who gave specific instructions and tips as to how to proceed with the clean up. My team was allotted the Palavakkam beach area and we were provided with a pair of gloves and coloured garbage bags to segregate degradable and non-degradable wastes.
When we started the clean up around 6:00 a.m., we found the area strewn with plastic everywhere. Paper cups, water bottles, liquor bottles, gutka, chips packets and plastic covers accounted for over 75 per cent of the waste we collected, and this was just at Palavakkam. I am pretty sure that this would have been the pattern throughout the stretch. Around 6:00 a.m., we set about our work with gusto to pick up as much garbage as possible before the unforgiving May Sun starts to melt us. The reward for the arduous work was right there before our eyes — the pristine beach. Really can't help to think that with periodical cleaning and maintenance, how beautiful our coastline would be.
The volunteers comprised people across age-groups, professions, and in fact, countries too. Around 8:00 a.m., we had almost cleaned up our area, and rested for a little snack. At about the same time, the truck arrived to load the garbage.
Waste management
While loading, everything was dumped together into the truck to our dismay. We later found out from the Corporation officials that all the garbage, irrespective of it being biodegradable or non-biodegradable, was to be taken to Perungundi dumping area and was to be burnt. This highlighted the need for proper waste management in our country.
With a prior Sunday appointment nearing, I bid adieu to my fellow volunteers and proceeded towards Elliots Beach (Besant Nagar), the final rendezvous point for all teams. Breakfast was being served on the beach for all volunteers, and I helped myself to couple of idlies and vada. I had a chance to catch up with Peter, the man at the helm of CTC. He said, “When we started this initiative and sent out an invitation mail, we got over 20 volunteers on the first day. Then it became 80, 100, and eventually grew to 600 volunteers. We also had participation from corporates such as TCS, Nokia, Logica and Vodafone, and student bodies such as Scouts and IIM-B, the final count snowballing to over a thousand.”
After everyone who wanted to assemble had assembled, CTC gave a vote of thanks to all the CTC members, corporates, police, corporation and the people of Chennai for making this massive initiative a resounding success.
I personally felt very happy that I was able to do something tangible to make my beloved beach to look amazing, albeit for just one day. A very sincere thanks to CTC. This initiative is a proof that all of us can come together to weed out the crap spoiling our system. And, all it requires for you to say is “I care”, and mean it. We did, and we made a difference.
Mohammed is a graduate from St. Peter's Engineering College, Chennai.
