Activists busy cleaning beaches for turtles

During the past few weekends, around 100 people were busy on the beach – picking up broken glass bottles, Styrofoam pieces, abandoned slippers, plastic items and shreds of clothes. This, is a consistent effort towards keeping the city beaches clean for the nesting Olive Ridley turtles. Peter Van Geit, Founder of Chennai Trekking Club (CTC), which has been conducting these clean-ups regularly said they cleared around 2-3 tonnes of garbage during a session last weekend. 

“The turtles coming in to nest may get hurt because of the broken glass or other garbage. The trash attracts dogs and other animals that prey on the turtles. We are doing our best to clean as much garbage as possible. We are planning to continue this and have many volunteers interested in this effort,” he said. 

Gowri Shankar R, Founder, The Serene Chennai, an NGO, said their team will spend the weekends cleaning up the beach during the nesting season. “While conducting a clean-up recently, we collected six sacks of glass bottles and slippers. During the break, we spoke to the residents in the vicinity near Broken Bridge,” he added. Ahmed Hanifa, an HR recruiter and a regular volunteer, said he started cleaning up the beach to do his bit for the turtles. 

“This is the garbage that lands from our homes into the ocean and then, thrown back to the land. Each of us is responsible for the garbage we throw. This is our problem. I am volunteering to fix it,” said the youngster. Shravan Krishnan, a volunteer with Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN), said the quantum of garbage has been steadily increasing. With Kaanum Pongal falling on Monday, he said the beach would ends up with a sea of trash. 

“Every year we do a clean-up. But we don’t see a reduction in the quantity of trash on the beach. It just keeps increasing every year. There are no signboards and not enough dustbins. We need the authorities to monitor the beaches for littering and fine the violators. This would deter people from throwing garbage on the beach. Not only during the nesting season, I think the beaches should be clean throughout the year,” he concluded.