World Environment Day: 650 Volunteers Gather For Beach, Lake Clean-up And Tree Plantation In Maharashtra And Odisha

New Delhi: On June 5 at 6:30 in the morning over 600 volunteers from Mumbai and Odisha, belonging to different walks of life, walked out of their houses to do their bit for the environment. On the occasion of the 46th World Environment Day, these swachh warriors took up the challenge of cleaning up beaches, lakes of the financial capital of India – Mumbai, and planting thousands of trees in Mumbai’s suburb, Thane and in Odisha’s Utkal University.

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Talking to NDTV about the initiative, 28-year-old beach warrior Chinu Kwatra said,

To celebrate the World Environment Day, we planned three things – beach clean-up, lake clean-up and tree plantation. We clean-up seven beaches on a regular basis but for today, we targeted to clean only two beaches that are Dadar and Bandra.

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The beach clean-up at Dadar and Bandra beach in Mumbai started at seven in the morning with 50 volunteers at each location and continued till 10am. While two tonnes of waste was collected from Dadar beach, one and a half tonnes of waste was collected from Bandra beach.

On the occasion of the World Environment day, beach clean-up was organised at Dadar and Bandra beach

Meanwhile at 9:30, 250 volunteers gathered at a Kasavarvadavli lake in Thane and in just one and a half hours, the swachh crusaders collected 3.5 tonnes of waste.

With an aim to save our beautiful lakes, today we embarked on this new journey with United Thane, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), says Chinu.

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While beach warriors were busy restoring the natural beauty of beaches and lakes, 300 environment crusaders were on a mission to colour Odisha and the Mental Hospital in Thane West in Maharashtra, green by planting fruit bearing saplings. While from 6:30am – 9am, volunteers planted 1,610 saplings in Thane West, over 1,000 saplings were planted in cyclone hit Odisha between 8am – 10am.

Beach warrior Chinu Kwatra, planting a sapling to beat air pollution

The tree plantation was done successfully with the help of volunteers from Ananta, an NGO, working in different sectors. Having done this, the swachh warriors plan to plant 8000 more trees in the coming monsoon.

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Giving out his message to people on the World Environment Day, Chinu says,

It is not a one day thing but every day is an environment day. We need to stop blaming and start acting towards the environment because we are only responsible for its damage and it’s time we take care of it. It is because of the environment we are alive and not the vice versa. So, we have to be very responsible towards our environment.

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NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.