Chennai residents gathered at Edward Elliot’s beach to participate in a cleanup drive on the occasion of International Coastal cleanup day on Saturday. The cleanup drive saw people participating from all walks of life including students, teachers and government officials. Indian Coast guards also participated in the drive.

Cleanup drive to boost tourism

"Today, we are celebrating International coastal cleanup day and this entire week we will carry out a cleanliness drive. Indian Coastal guards also participated in the event and also directed the volunteers about the clean-up drive. Students and teachers have also come out in large numbers to take part in the event," said Shreevats Sanjay, Deputy Director, Indian Tourism Chennai. "We are trying to preserve the beach for the future generations and also to boost tourism by making it plastic-free," he added. Another drive was organised at Chennai’s Marina beach by Indian Coastal Guards. The Odisha’s Government also organised a cleanup drive in Puri district where volunteers gathered around beaches to clean the trash. 

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The Odisha’s Government also organised a cleanup drive in Puri district where volunteers gathered around beaches to clean the trash. 

International Coastal Cleanup Day

The International Coastal Cleanup day was started more than 30 years ago by Linda Maraniss and Kathy O’Hara in the United States of America when they were working for Ocean Conservancy, a non-profit organisation in Washington D.C. The movement started by collecting trash from coastlines and catalyzed immensely.

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Cleanup drives in Mumbai

Cleanup drives were also conducted at Mumbai’s Dadar beach. The drive saw volunteers coming together to clean up the beach. Versova residents had gathered at the Versova beach a few days ago to clean up the beach after Ganesh Visarjan. The US deputy consulate in Mumbai and the Norweigian deputy consulate also joined the drive at Versova.  

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