Eight tonnes of trash collected from sea coast

RAMESWARAM: Indian Coast Guard personnel and volunteers collected seven to eight tonnes of garbage from the Rameswaram coast during a clean-up drive undertaken as a part of the International Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday. The collected waste was later dumped at the local municipality yard.
According to the Coast Guard Station, Mandapam, over 700 volunteers from Indian Coast Guard, local schools and members of NCC/NSS/Scouts from nearby colleges participated in the drive, which was observed worldwide to clean beaches and coasts to make seashore environment-friendly.
The event was organised by the Indian Coast Guard Station, Mandapam in association with the district administration and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
Ahead of the drive, station commander of the Coast Guard appealed to the public for maximum participation. The drive covered Agnitheethram beach, Ariyaman beach, Kundugal point and seashore area of Mandapam fisheries jetty.
During the drive that begun at 7.30am and ended at 10am, the volunteers gathered seven to eight tonnes of marine litter, fishing lines, waste nets, food wrappers, ropes, plastic bags and sheets, coast guard officials said. Another unique feature of the drive was data collection on specific types of marine debris. The data would be used to create awareness among the public, industry and government officials about the problem and finding long lasting solutions to make our beaches clean, Coast Guard officials said. tnn