The Hindu 19.12.2009
Group to rid Elliots Beach of garbage
Staff Reporter
FILE PHOTO
Action plan: The Elliots Beach will be cleaned in January. —
CHENNAI: Members of the Reclaim Our Beaches (ROB) campaign will clean up the Elliots Beach in Besant Nagar on January 30 and 31 in an attempt to create a sense of belonging among beach users.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, members of the team, including Archanaa Sekar, Sharadha Shankar, Srikrishna Sekhar and Siddharth Hande, said that the beach was littered with a lot of garbage, including pieces of glass, gutkha wrappers, drinking water packets and corn cobs.
The group, which recently surveyed the garbage on the sands, said they found 1,735 pieces of glass and 8,505 silver foil packets.
When they tried to find who was responsible, residents, the fishing community, tourists and vendors blamed each other.
The members also complained that garbage was not being cleared from the fishing hamlets regularly. There were only two garbage bins for the entire stretch of the beach.
They planned to create awareness among schoolchildren, vendors, the fishing community and the public about the need for understanding that the beach was theirs.
A fundraising rock concert would be held on Sunday. Chennai band Junkyard Groove would perform.
ROB was formed with members of ‘350me’ and ‘Save Chennai Beaches campaign.’
