One Mumbai man has been tirelessly working to clean up Mumbai's most iconic beaches.
With the help of 70 to 80 volunteers in Mumbai, Chinu Kwatra cleaned up Mumbai's Dadar beach over 20 weeks last year and this year has undertaken the task of cleaning up the iconic Juhu beach in Mumbai.
Two weeks before the World Ocean Day which is celebrated on June 8, Mr Kwatra started off with three volunteers to clean the Juhu beach.
"99 percent of the rubbish is plastic bags. While some other rubbish thrown into the ocean decomposes with time, the plastic bags do not decompose and are swallowed by marine life. A single plastic drinking straw takes a thousand years to decompose," he tells SBS Hindi.
"This is alarming."
Every year shoppers across the world use 500 billion single-use plastic bags. 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic are dumped in the oceans.
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"If we don't take the initiative, these beautiful historic beaches will disappear. Soon they will turn into dumping grounds, choking marine life to death, besides it will spread diseases too," says Mr Kwatra.
No longer will people be able to go to the beach to relax and breathe in fresh air, they will be breathing in disease instead.
Mr Kwatra and his team have so far cleared 300,000 kg of rubbish from Dadar beach alone and 99 percent of it is plastic bags.
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They find dead turtles, water snakes and fish on the beach all dying due to the plastic bags.
The UN's goodwill ambassador for Environment Day, actor Dia Mirza joined the team in the clean-up.
What started off as a team of three people has grown to between 70 - 80 volunteers giving up their weekends to clean beaches.
In addition to the mountains of rubbish the beach-cleaners have also found some treasures too, including broken statues of the god, Ganpati.
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"Every weekend we find at least three to four idols, as they are made of plaster of Paris rather than clay. These are our blessing and encourage us to work harder on the clean-up. Occasionally we find coins as well," Mr Kwatra chuckles.
"We wish to teach the people that disposing of their garbage correctly is each individual's responsibility."
