Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) organised a beach clean-up event at the Ashtalakshmi temple beach in Besant Nagar on the morning of July 15, in association with The Indian Maritime Foundation, Chennai. This programme was conducted under the aegis of Swachh Pakhwada program of Govt of India. Indian Maritime Foundation is the India partner to Ocean Conservancy, US, both committed to ocean health and trash free oceans.
The event was flagged off by Commissioner of Police, Sandeep Rai Rathore, IPS, Susmit Das, Head (HRS -South), BPCL along with Capt.Krishnamurthi of Indian Maritime Foundation.
300 volunteers, young and old, including students and employees of Trisakha Foundation, Hindustan Institute of Maritime training, DG Vaishnav college, BPCL and the Chennai Police participated in the citizen’s clean-up initiative. About 750 kgs of trash, mostly uncontained plastics, metals and glass were collected.
Addressing the volunteers, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Adyar, P.Mahendran, emphasised the need for a clean environment and a drug free society. Susmit Das informed the volunteers that this effort was part of a sustained pan-India Swachh Bharat campaign that Public Sectors like BPCL were committed to.
Speaking to reporters, Capt. Sivaraman Krishnamurthi, the Hon.Vice President of the Indian Maritime Foundation, explained that these exercises are meant to create a ‘do-more-talk-less’ culture while raising public awareness of the disruptive health hazards to the planet’s food chain caused by plastics and microplastics.
While informally speaking with the young local fisherfolk at this beach, Capt. Krishnamurthi was pleasantly surprised to note the high level of awareness of the real risk of plastic among the fishing community. One youngster from the village, Umapathy, described how the fishing output within a 10-mile range had depleted over the last decade due to fertility rates, which was an impact of the plastics. Fish incubate their eggs in their mouth. Umapathy recounted the horror of seeing tiny pieces of plastic choke the eggs to death within the fish’s insides.
For more information on Indian Maritime Foundation, checkout their website: www.indianmaritimefoundation.org.in.
