Beach clean-up drives organized at Car Nicobar Island

A series of beach cleanup drives were taken up on the beaches of Big Lapathy, Tamaloo, Malacca Jetty, Sawaii, and Kimos Bay in Car Nicobar from 31^st Jan to 20^th Feb 2023 at regular intervals. The focus of the cleanliness drive is to spread awareness among the traditional people of Car Nicobar about the ill effects of plastic waste accumulated in the coastal areas. Accordingly, the volunteers from the tribal community were sensitized and gathered from the villages of Malacca and Perka to undertake the cleanup activities and participated in the removal of the plastic waste on the beaches. The activities were undertaken through the collaborative project titled ‘Augmenting livelihood, resilience, and knowledge generation through coastal fisheries information hub for Car Nicobar Island’ between ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute (CIARI), Port Blair, and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi. The cleanup activities would henceforth be continued in the future and more volunteers from different villages would be encouraged to participate in the beach clean-up activities. The beach clean-up was closely coordinated by ICAR-CIARI and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Car Nicobar under the guidance of Dr. Eaknath B. Chakurkar, the Director, ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair.