600 Kolis clear 500 tonnes of trash from Mumbai beach

While volunteers cleaned out most of the garbage manually, they borrowed a JCB from the civic body to weed out some plastic and debris buried deep in the sand, and around the area closest to the sea.

More than 600 volunteers from the Koli community in Colaba cleared out 500 tonnes of trash from the beach near Cuffe Parade on Monday.

More than 600 volunteers from the Koli community in Colaba cleared out 500 tonnes of trash from the beach near Cuffe Parade on Monday. (Bhushan Koyande/ HT)

The volunteers, including children and women, started the clean-up at 2.30pm. While volunteers cleaned out most of the garbage manually, they borrowed a JCB from the civic body to weed out some plastic and debris buried deep in the sand, and around the area closest to the sea.

Bhuvaneshwar Dhanu, a member of the Macchimar Sarvoday Co-operative Society, Cuffe Parade, said, “The fishermen will start going out in the sea again, after Narali Purnima on August 15 . We did not want to go fishing in the sea with all the dirt.”

Dhanu said the sea gets dirtiest during monsoon when the high waves flush out all the garbage citizens throw into it around the year. The Koli community at Colaba had made multiple requests to the civic body to clean out the garbage in their area. “The civic body has channelled most of its manpower and machines for flood relief in the state. So it lent us a dumper, a JCB and some manpower. This was not enough, so we decided to lend a hand,” said Dhanu.