World Environment Day cleanups

On this year's world environment day, 5th June 2022, ThereIsNoEarthB (TINEB) organized three clean-up drives in the country that saw active participation from the public. Royal Enfield, Earthlings First, and Earthday.org were the collaborators for these drives. The country's capital Delhi, and two metropolitan cities, Chennai and Bangalore, witnessed active engagement from citizens that care about the environment. Cleaning equipment, refreshments, and merchandise were issued to all participants. The upcoming paragraphs provide details about each of the mentioned clean-up drives.

Sanjay Van, Delhi: The forest, part of the Mehrauli South Central Ridge, has undergone severe degradation and water depletion [1]. We had close to 70 volunteers who helped in the clean-up. The total amount of non-biodegradable waste collected was 54 Kilograms.

Elliot's Beach, Chennai: The beach is the endpoint of the Marina Beach shore and has numerous food/game stalls. TINEB's first clean-up in Chennai was successful with about 100 participants and a total of 50 Kilograms of non-biodegradable waste removed.

Hebbal Lake, Bengaluru: The lake remains dirty with the public-private participation initiative from the Lake Development Authority in 2004 [2]. Again, we witnessed 100 volunteers with a whopping 218 Kilogram of non-biodegradable waste collected. This has been one of the highest amounts of waste removed from a clean-up conducted by TINEB.

Overall, all three clean-ups were successful, acting as a wake-up call for the local authorities and the citizens. There was zeal and enthusiasm from the participants with appreciation from the onlookers. We hope to scale up these initiatives in frequency and size in the future.