“When the going gets good, the good gets going.” True to these words, Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) conducted its second Chennai Coastal clean-up campaign on Jan 9, 2011, cleaning up the entire Chennai Coastal line from Marina beach to Injambakkam with more than 500 volunteers, covering 15km of beach, and collecting more than 800 garbage bags. The purpose of this campaign was to spread environmental awareness – again – to the general public and to preserve our natural resources. Volunteers assembled around 5am on Sunday at 11 locations across Chennai city and were transported to 15 different beach zones where CTC organizers coordinated 15 different groups during the cleanup operation between 6 and 9am.
After the cleanup operation the volunteers were dropped back to their respective assembly points.
There were volunteers from all walks of life -- students, NSS volunteers, professionals and our very own fishermen – assisting CTC in this massive event. 55 NSS volunteers from Anna University, 150 employees from Nokia, 45 software professionals from HP, 72 NSS volunteers from Coromandel, 14 students from the Anna Violet College and a few members of the Tree Bank joined hands with about 200 CTC volunteers, collecting 800 garbage bags in two hours. Event sponsors BioTec Bags and Madras Cements Ltd provided with bio-degradable garbage bags and gloves respectively.
More than 8 months ago, on May 16th 2010 CTC conducted the first-of-the-kind Chennai coastal clean-up campaign covering the same 15km stretch from Marina till Injambakkam. In spite of the tremendous environmental awareness it created with general public, a reconnaissance mission by the members of the CTC in December found the Chennai coasts badly in want of another massive clean-up effort. So when the idea was put forth to the members of CTC for a second campaign, the volunteer count quickly touched 300 in just two weeks. Buoyed by this response, the organizing committee -- already armed with experience – went into overdrive to plan and execute this campaign in little less than a month’s time. Considering the scale of the entire operation including people management, logistics, official clearances, this campaign is no mean feat – even for the 10000-member strong Chennai Trekking Club.
When asked about the need for such an initiative, Hari Balasubramaniam, CTC member and one of the official photographers of the event, opined, “most of us live in an oblivion world that simply does not care about Mother Nature and more importantly, one of the most important ecosystems offering livelihood to a few million people in the city of Chennai…so the need for another herculean effort, to get the conservative Chennaite awake on a sober Sunday morning to clean the backyard of one of the most beautiful ecosystems in the world.”
In addition to the large-scale coastal clean-up campaigns, CTC also conducts clean-up campaigns targeting specific beach stretches with 30-50 volunteers every few weeks. The Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) is one of the largest and most active trekking clubs in South India (10.000 members). It's a non-profit group run by volunteers who organize treks across India during nearly all weekends of the year. CTC also engages in social treks taking out underprivileged children on 1 day treks. More information can be found at www.chennaitrekkers.org.
Showing posts with label beach cleanup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beach cleanup. Show all posts
Monday, January 10, 2011
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Get...set...Green.
"To clean or not to clean. That is the question." ... asked by Chennai Trekking Club. And 880+ Chennaiites, Indians and citizens of the world answered..."Let's clean!!!"
Chennai coastal cleanup was an initiative by Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) to clean up a 15 Km Chenna
i coast from Marina till Injambakkam on May 16th 2010. The entire initiative was organized by CTC, a non-profit amateur trekking club, with meticulous planning that spawned over an entire month with help from its volunteer members.
The entire stretch was divided into three zones viz North, Mid and South fronts with 5 teams in each zones. Each team had a catchy name too such as Sand Storm, Chennai Ridley, Beach Warriors (my team!!) and for a French touch, Les Balayeuses. All of the volunteers were asked to assemble at one of the predetermined 11 pick-up points across Chennai around 5-5:15 A.M in the morning. From there on, each went to their respective locations. Each team had two leads who gave specific instructions and tips as to how to proceed with the clean up. My team Beach Warriors was allotted Palavakkam beach area. All of us were provided with a pair of gloves, and colored garbage bags to segregate degradable and non-degradable wastes.
And with just a glance at the beach, we found that it was plastic, plastic and plastic everyw
here. Paper cups, water bottles, liquor bottles, gutka and chips packs, and plastic covers accounted for over 75% of the waste we collected, and this is just at Palavakkam. I am pretty sure that this would have been the pattern throughout out entire stretch. Around 6:00 A.m., We all started off with gusto to pick up as much garbage as possible before the unforgiving May Sun started to melt us. The reward of our arduous work was right there before our eyes; the pristine beach. Really can't help to think that with periodical cleaning and maintenance, how beautiful would our coastline be!
The volunteers distribution were across age-groups, professions, and in fact, countries. Around 8:00, we had almost cleaned up our area, and rested for a little snack. At the same time, the garbage truck came to load the garbage, an illustration of the clock-work precision organizing by CTC. One point shou
ld be made here. While collecting garbage, we carefully chose to put degradable and non-degradable wastes in separate bags. However, everything was dumped together into the truck causing dismay among the volunteers. On a small talk with the corporations folks, I found that all the garbage was to be taken to Perungundi dumping area and were to be burnt irrespective of the type of wastes. A very livid picture portraying how much there is to do in our city, in fact in our country, for a proper waste management.
With a prior Sunday appointment nearing, I bid adieu to my fellow volunteers and proceeded towards Elliots Beach (Besant Nagar), the final rendezvous point for all teams. Breakfast was being served on the beach for all volunteers, and I helped myself to couple of idlies an
d vada. I had a chance to catch up with Peter, the man at the helm of CTC. He said, "When we started this initiative and sent out an invitation mail, we got over 20 volunteers in the first day. Then it became 80, 100, with eventually garnering over 600+ volunteers. We also had participation from corporates such as TCS, Nokia, Logica, Vodafone etc and student bodies such as Scouts and IIM-B, snowballing the overall count to over a thousand." After everyone who wanted to assemble had assembled, CTC gave a vote of thanks to all the CTC members, corporates, Police, corporation and the people of Chennai for making this massive initiative a resounding success.
I personally felt very happy that I was able to do something tangible to make my beloved beach to look amazing, albeit for just one day. A very sincere thanks to CTC. Metaphorically speaking, this initiative is a proof that how all of us can come together to weed out the crap spoiling our system. And, all it requires for you to say is "I care", and mean it. We did, and we made a difference.
Chennai coastal cleanup was an initiative by Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) to clean up a 15 Km Chenna
i coast from Marina till Injambakkam on May 16th 2010. The entire initiative was organized by CTC, a non-profit amateur trekking club, with meticulous planning that spawned over an entire month with help from its volunteer members.The entire stretch was divided into three zones viz North, Mid and South fronts with 5 teams in each zones. Each team had a catchy name too such as Sand Storm, Chennai Ridley, Beach Warriors (my team!!) and for a French touch, Les Balayeuses. All of the volunteers were asked to assemble at one of the predetermined 11 pick-up points across Chennai around 5-5:15 A.M in the morning. From there on, each went to their respective locations. Each team had two leads who gave specific instructions and tips as to how to proceed with the clean up. My team Beach Warriors was allotted Palavakkam beach area. All of us were provided with a pair of gloves, and colored garbage bags to segregate degradable and non-degradable wastes.
And with just a glance at the beach, we found that it was plastic, plastic and plastic everyw
here. Paper cups, water bottles, liquor bottles, gutka and chips packs, and plastic covers accounted for over 75% of the waste we collected, and this is just at Palavakkam. I am pretty sure that this would have been the pattern throughout out entire stretch. Around 6:00 A.m., We all started off with gusto to pick up as much garbage as possible before the unforgiving May Sun started to melt us. The reward of our arduous work was right there before our eyes; the pristine beach. Really can't help to think that with periodical cleaning and maintenance, how beautiful would our coastline be!The volunteers distribution were across age-groups, professions, and in fact, countries. Around 8:00, we had almost cleaned up our area, and rested for a little snack. At the same time, the garbage truck came to load the garbage, an illustration of the clock-work precision organizing by CTC. One point shou
ld be made here. While collecting garbage, we carefully chose to put degradable and non-degradable wastes in separate bags. However, everything was dumped together into the truck causing dismay among the volunteers. On a small talk with the corporations folks, I found that all the garbage was to be taken to Perungundi dumping area and were to be burnt irrespective of the type of wastes. A very livid picture portraying how much there is to do in our city, in fact in our country, for a proper waste management.With a prior Sunday appointment nearing, I bid adieu to my fellow volunteers and proceeded towards Elliots Beach (Besant Nagar), the final rendezvous point for all teams. Breakfast was being served on the beach for all volunteers, and I helped myself to couple of idlies an
d vada. I had a chance to catch up with Peter, the man at the helm of CTC. He said, "When we started this initiative and sent out an invitation mail, we got over 20 volunteers in the first day. Then it became 80, 100, with eventually garnering over 600+ volunteers. We also had participation from corporates such as TCS, Nokia, Logica, Vodafone etc and student bodies such as Scouts and IIM-B, snowballing the overall count to over a thousand." After everyone who wanted to assemble had assembled, CTC gave a vote of thanks to all the CTC members, corporates, Police, corporation and the people of Chennai for making this massive initiative a resounding success.
I personally felt very happy that I was able to do something tangible to make my beloved beach to look amazing, albeit for just one day. A very sincere thanks to CTC. Metaphorically speaking, this initiative is a proof that how all of us can come together to weed out the crap spoiling our system. And, all it requires for you to say is "I care", and mean it. We did, and we made a difference.
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