the goan I network
PANAJI
Goa’s beaches had the highest man-made beach litter in the period between October 2013 and January 2014, according to a survey conducted by experts of ICAR - Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin of selected 254 beaches of maritime States as well as Union Territories of Andaman and Lakshadweep Islands.
Interestingly, Goa had appointed an agency in 2013-14 for beach cleaning and the expenses for the North Goa beaches was Rs 85.26 lakh while Rs one-crore was spent in South Goa.
The survey figures have come to light now as a MoEF’s Society of Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM) included the findings in a draft of Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) it prepared for the proposed Enhancing Coastal and Ocean Resource Efficiency (ENCORE) Project with financial assistance from the World Bank.
Experts of ICAR conducted the study.
As per the survey 51 beaches were graded as very clean with green colour, 122 beaches were graded as Clean and depicted by blue colour.
Beaches of very clean grade were found in Kerala (17), Maharashtra (12), Tamil Nadu (2), Andhra Pradesh (4), Odisha (7) and West Bengal (3). Whereas extremely littered beaches were found in Karnataka (13), Goa, Gujarat, and Andaman Island.
With reference to the coastal population and per capita share of beach debris, Goa registered highest values (40.97 kg/head) and the Odisha coast registered the lowest values (0.005 kg/head).
Beach litter from different
maritime States and the UTs showed that Odisha coast has the lowest quantity and Goa coast the highest quantity of beach debris.
Coasts of Andamans as well as Lakshadweep recorded values higher than Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.
Samples of debris collected from beaches revealed that all the items were domestic and anthropogenic discards. Plastic litter such as single use carry bags and sachets of soft drinks, edible oils, detergents, beverages, cases of cosmetics, toothpaste, PET bottles, ice cream containers etc., recorded a high along Goa coast while the lowest was from Odisha.
The report attributes increase in beach litter due to tourism and urbanisation.
“The data also has some connection between beach litter and coastal urbanization /tourism activity, especially in Goa and Karnataka. It must be noticed that affluence of coastal population has a bearing on consumption of packaged products”, report says.
The reports also suggest that for control of litter a multi-pronged approach is necessary and by innovative thinking communities can evolve feasible measures and policy interventions.
