Bandra Wonderland fair messes up Carter Road promenade, spurs clean-up

The Carter Cleanup, a group conducting clean-ups of the beach since 2021, was aghast when it saw the beach after the fair had been dismantled; there were thousands of tiny pieces of plastic confetti sprinkled on the beach, Christmas decorations, styrofoam, plastic plates, wrappers, and more

MUMBAI: By most accounts, the Bandra Wonderland fair, which began on December 21 on the Carter Road promenade, was a total success. It was free of cost for all participants and gathered crowds from all over the city, even if it was to the chagrin of the residents who had to accommodate the influx of traffic and visitors.

Mumbai, India - Jan. 6, 2024: Carter cleanup group start cleaning the Carter road beach after the new year celebration in Mumbai, India, on Saturday, January 6, 2024. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

But what the fair left behind after it ended on January 2, 2024 was dismaying. The Carter Cleanup, a group conducting clean-ups of the beach since 2021, was aghast when it saw the beach after the fair had been dismantled; there were thousands of tiny pieces of plastic confetti sprinkled on the beach, Christmas decorations, styrofoam, plastic plates, wrappers, and more.

Amaia, a walker on the promenade, recalled seeing litter everywhere the day after New Year’s Eve. Another runner and dog walker, Valentina Dlima, remembered encountering the same after Christmas Day as well.

In a positive turn of events, however, just as the walkers brought this to the attention of the organisers, the I Love Mumbai Foundation, on social media, reinforcements were quickly sent in. Thus, when the group and around 30 of its volunteers reached on Saturday morning for their weekly clean-up, the fair’s leftover waste made up just a little of the 485 kg they collected.

“A lot of the confetti had been picked up, but because it’s so many tiny pieces, not all was gone,” said Ashwin Malwade, co-founder of Carter Cleanup. “There was a lot of religious waste this morning, including flowers, plastic and religious cloths that the waves threw up, along with the plastic waste and bags. There’s a lot of littering done by the people on Carter Road too.”

While Rahul Kanal, owner of the I Love Mumbai Foundation, admitted that the confetti had landed on the beach due to the wind, he said the foundation had organised clean-ups on all the days during the fair and after it wrapped up, from Wednesday to Saturday. He denied that the dismantling of the Christmas tree contributed to the mess, saying, “The tree was made with LED mesh and steel. None of that was on the beach. Only the confetti waste was there, and we cleaned it up.”

Malwade said that his group wanted to call attention to the larger systemic issue of garbage and littering on beaches. “Events such as these take place all the time, and there should be proper cleaning by the organisers, as the tide washes a lot of the garbage into the sea,” he said. “We’ve also been asking the BMC for bins along the Carter Road promenade for years, but they still haven’t placed them. The bins that are there are few and far between, placed deep in the beach area. If there are no accessible bins, how can we appeal to citizens to dispose of garbage responsibly?”

Dlima too noted that on her daily rounds, she constantly saw dog poop of pet dogs not picked up by walkers, and food boxes and plates chucked by visitors to the promenade. The litter washed up by the waves is the end result of citizens’ littering, which is how the clean-up drive group has collected around 48,600 kg of garbage in their history of clean-up drives and sent it for recycling.