20-yr-old comes up with initiative to keep Mumbai beaches clean

Malhar Kalambe may be just a final year student of Hinduja College and be just 20 years old, but he was so concerned by the state of Mumbai’s beaches that he has come up with a noble initiative to keep them clean.

He formed a group of 23 from among his friends who visit schools and colleges and appeal to them to join their beach clean-up drive every Sunday.

According to Kalambe, he felt that the city is known for its beaches but piles of trash and sewage contamination have made them unsafe for visitors in recent years and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has turned a blind eye to it. He felt it necessary to step up and keep them clean. Kalambe’s group is currently conducting a clean-up drive at Dadar Chowpatty.

Kalambe said, “Compared to Juhu and other beaches of Mumbai, Dadar is in extremely bad condition. Hence, we have selected this beach, which is 5 kms long from Siddhivinayk temple to Mahim, and on every Sunday students from different colleges and schools participate in the drive.”

He added that so far they hadn’t received any help from the BMC except trolleys to collect and carry the waste to the dump. “For the past 11 weeks the drive is going on and on every Sunday. We have collected approximately 300 kgs of trash. We want to recycle and reuse the waste, but for that separate segregation centre is required. We have requested the BMC but haven’t received a positive reply,” he added.

Kalambe added that at present, the students are spending their own money to buy gloves, other safety material.

Shakeel Shaikh, an activist, was sad that the BMC wasn’t helping such groups. “If there’s co-ordination with civic body, more such groups will come forward and do their bit,” he added.

In a similar move earlier, Afroz Shah, a Versova resident, had decided to clean the beach by himself. Seeing the effort by him and his friends, others joined them and about 50,000 kgs of waste was removed during the first clean-up on the 2.5-kms shore, and slowly steadily around 5,000 metric tons of trash was successfully removed from Versova beach alone.