KOCHI: The Fort Kochi beach got rid of 300kg of waste on Saturday, thanks to the department of Marine Biology, Cusat, for organising a coastal cleaning drive on the International Coastal Clean-up Day. The drive was organised in association with the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) and School of Marine Sciences, Cusat. Around 250 volunteers, including students of Bharata Mata College and St Albert’s College, took part in the cleaning activity.
Approximately 100 gunny bags of degrading plastic materials, bottles, glass bottles, used batteries, nylon ropes, fishing gear waste, fishing nets, footwear, plastic food bags and straws were collected. The segregated waste was handed over to the Kochi Corporation for disposal.
Cusat VC K N Madhusoodanan inaugurated the drive. He highlighted the importance of the day and how marine litters and microplastics were posing a grave danger to the marine ecosystem. Madhusoodanan emphasised on the need for such cleaning activities. Shiny Mathew, standing committee chairperson and Antony Francis, Fort Kochi councillor commended the initiative.