Mangrove soldiers remove 95-tonne garbage in 91 weeks

‘Mangrove soldiers’ of Environment Life Foundation conducted a mangroves cleanup drive on Sunday near Nerul and Navi Mumbai, removing more than a tonne of garbage.

The NGO started cleaning the mangroves and creeks from Nerul to Belapur, Navi Mumbai on August 15, 2020 and has removed over 95 tonnes of nondegradable trash in 91 weeks without any break.

Environmentalist and founder of Environment Life Foundation, Dharmesh Barai said, “Cleaning of mangrove areas is a neverending task, every week the same place gets filled with garbage again because of the waste coming from the creeks. But we keep cleaning it again and again. Now, it is yielding results as the ecosystem is these areas are reviving with crabs and other aquatic life flourishing again.”

According to Dharmesh, the main source of garbage is the dumping of waste by slums and other areas into the water bodies. This garbage then flows and gets stuck within the roots of the mangroves. “This is the main cause of and needs to be rectified by spreading awareness among the people.”

“Our team works from 7 am to 9 am every Sunday and removes trash, including medical waste, thousands of slippers, food waste, plastic waste, etc from the creek and mangrove forests with the huge support of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), Mangroves Foundation and various groups of volunteers from all over the city. This Sunday we collected around 1.5 tonnes of garbage with the participation of around 45 volunteers,” added the environmentalist.

He added that the garbage collected by his NGO gets transferred by the NMMC in trucks to the dumping ground where the waste gets segregated and processed.

Dharmesh and his team also conduct a small session after every clean-up activity about mangroves and about the need for everyone to wake up and help restore mother nature.

The NGO welcomes new volunteers every week and interested can reach them on Instagram page @EnvironmentLife.