After achieving a rare feat of cleaning the Versova beach that finally witnessed the return of endangered Olive Ridley Turtles after a period of two decades, Afroz Shah along with his enthusiastic team of volunteers are looking for other locations in the city that need to be cleaned up.
Shah who is also an awardee of UN’s Champion of the Earth award, 2016 which has been given to the like of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will now look after other locations since the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) contracted the work of cleaning Versova beach to a private agency.
Shah told that Versova is now clean and a fresh tender is also in place. The BMC has offered a tender of Rs 22-crore to a private agency for cleaning the beach for the next six years as the residents will continue to volunteer.
Afroz started the mission Versova clean-up in 2015 which began to grew as a big community since then. Since the past year, around 4,000 tons of garbage has been lifted from the beach.
“I am going to take up another flashpoint within the city that needs clean-up efforts as well as community development, but I am yet to decide where. The idea is to commence work from ground level convincing citizens to connect with nature.” Shah further told HTadding that he will support volunteers if needed.
His efforts have been lauded by United Nations Environmental Organisation terming the cleanup as the world’s largest beach cleanup with the participation of top UN officials. Drawing inspiration from his work celebrities like Dia Mirza and Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray had also spent an hour at the Dadar beach.
Article Credit : IndiaTimes