Mangalore, Sep 2: As many as 1,200 students along with NSS volunteers and citizens turned up at numerous beaches, including Tannirbavi along the Dakshina Kannada coastline on Sunday as a part of 'Save my beach' campaign.
The campaign, organised by Mata Amritanandamayi Math and other organisations and clubs, started off around 8 a.m. on the ten beaches here: Someshwara Beach, Bengre Beach, Tannirbavi (Church), Tannirbavi (Main Beach), Panambur Beach, Chitrapura Beach, Hosabettu Beach, Surathkal Beach, Surathkal Light House, and Mukka Beach.
The garbage was cleared out by Mangalore City Corporation trucks.
The campaign began with breathing exercises and yoga, and after the bodies were suitably warmed up, the picking up of garbage began.
In most places, the cleaning up was done within the first couple of hours; however, in Tannirbavi where more than 400 persons had gathered, the volume of garbage was so huge that the volunteers had to give up by noon. “Even then, only around 45 per cent of the garbage was removed. The heat got to the students, who had turned up around 4 a.m. There were so many bottles on the beach, and we had to even administer first aid on those who got cut while cleaning it,” said Naveen Shetty, Principal of Ramakrishna College, who was there.
Yatish Baikampady, chief executive officer, Panambur Tourism Development Project, said the campaign would be taken up as a monthly activity to tackle the “perennial” garbage problem. “The city is responsible for the disposing of garbage into rivers and the sea, and during the monsoon churning, all this gets thrown back into the beaches,” he said.
More than 300 pledges were also made to donate blood, Mr. Baikampady said.
Comments
Add new comment