Nearly 650 kg of marine debris cleared from Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg coast

For the 2nd consecutive year, the sportfishing assemblage of Malvan, on with environmentalists and aggregate authorities agencies, has joined hands to region heaps of marine debris, choking the biodiverse waters of Maharashtra’s Konkan coast. The latest cleanup drive, held connected December 9 and 10, saw a squad of 10 nonrecreational scuba divers and 12 volunteers retrieve nearly 650 kilograms of waste, including shade nets, integrative wrappers, bottles, cans, and fibreglass fragments, from depths of up to 30 feet adjacent Sindhudurg Fort.

The initiative, spearheaded by Vanashakti’s coastal wing Sagarshakti, was conducted successful collaboration with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Mangrove Cell, State Fisheries Department, Malvan Nagar Parishad, Fisheries Survey of India, and section scuba divers’ associations. It marks the archetypal thrust under Phase II of the Marine Debris Cleanup Project, which aims to intensify efforts to support fragile coral reef ecosystems and marine biodiversity on the Malvan coast.

“This is the 2nd twelvemonth of the drive,” said Nandakumar Waman Pawar, environmentalist and traditional fisherman who heads Sagarshakti’s coastal projects. “Last year, we conducted 8 drives betwixt October 2024 and April 2025 and removed nearly 3,000 kilos of waste. This year, we program 10 drives—two each month—though we started precocious owed to unsmooth monsoon seas and mediocre visibility.”

The cleanup focused connected high-impact sites around Sindhudurg Fort, a marine biodiversity hotspot frequented by tourists. Bhushan Juwatkar, a section fisherfolk and nonrecreational scuba diver said, the findings were alarming, “Several coral structures were recovered entangled successful shade nets, severely restricting their maturation and threatening marine beingness that depends connected these reefs for structure and breeding. This starkly underscores however mediocre discarded absorption connected onshore yet travels done drains, creeks, and rivers to the water floor, wherever it continues to harm ecosystems invisible to the nationalist eye.” 

The debris collected during this thrust weighed approximately 400 kg from reef zones alone, with shade nets accounting for nearly 60% of the waste. Other items included integrative bottles, metallic cans, sacks, solid bottles, and fibreglass fragments from boats, Mr. Pawar said. 

In June 2025, Vanashakti submitted a elaborate connection titled “Clean Shore Initiative — Large Scale Marine Debris Clean-Up Drive on the Coast of Malvan, Sindhudurg” to MPCB, the State Fisheries Department, Mangrove Cell, Malvan Nagar Parishad, and different stakeholders. The proposal seeks to physique on initial successes by fostering assemblage participation, raising awareness, and establishing sustainable discarded absorption practices to support marine biodiversity and section livelihoods. 

The divers emphasised that marine debris not lone threatens aquatic biodiversity but also impacts fisheries, tourism, and coastal livelihoods.

“Marine litter is 1 of the astir pressing biology threats of the 21st century,” Mr. Pawar said, citing planetary estimates that 8 to 12 cardinal metric tons of integrative discarded participate oceans annually, with projections indicating this could triple by 2040 without intervention. “Initiatives similar this cleanup service arsenic some mitigation and consciousness tools, reminding communities that what we discard irresponsibly connected onshore yet returns arsenic an ecological situation astatine sea.” 

Malvan, located in Sindhudurg district, is simply a tourism hub renowned for its coral reefs and marine treasures. The team wants to clean the halfway areas astir Sindhudurg Fort and called upon citizens, section bodies, and policymakers to fortify discarded absorption systems and curb integrative usage astatine the source.

“This palmy thrust stands arsenic a beardown illustration of assemblage participation, inter-departmental collaboration, and science-backed enactment coming unneurotic to support India’s precious coastal ecosystems. We entreaty to the locals to articulation hands for this noble origin in maintaining healthy marine, coral affluent ecosystem of Sindhudurg territory which is the first marine period of Maharashtra,” Mr. Pawar said.