TN forest officials go scuba-diving to remove waste from sea
Waste generation in large waterbodies, which fatally affects sea animals, is a matter of concern in India. In a bid to clean the sea, forest officials in Tamil Nadu, who have been trained in scuba diving, plucked out plastic waste from the Gulf of Mannar recently. ANI shared a video on Twitter showing the remarkable efforts of the forest officials. Here's more on this.
On Monday, forest officials undertook the operation in Gulf of Mannar in the Palk Bay. The video showed a scuba diver taking out chunks of plastic waste lodged deep inside the sea. Notably, the Wildlife Institute of India and Tamil Nadu Forest Department provided scuba diving and underwater monitoring training to foresters last year for the conservation of marine animals in the Palk Bay.
Tamil Nadu: Forest officials, trained in scuba diving, participated in the removal of plastic waste from Gulf of Mannar yesterday. pic.twitter.com/IeXOMTp2Qt
— ANI (@ANI) February 13, 2019
Last September too, forest officials participated in the seawater cleaning drive in the Gulf of Mannar. As per reports, they covered a distance of 1 km and removed a total of 6 kg of waste. The waste collected included plastic water bottles, liquor bottles, and gutkha packets, among others. The cleaning process involved eight scuba divers, including the forest officials.
Notably, over 1,000 rare species such as snakes, turtles, sea cows, corals, finless porpoise, among others reside in the Gulf of Mannar. Unfortunately, most of the species have gone extinct. "Eight million tonnes of waste is getting settled down every year and more than 2,080 underwater species have been affected by the pollution in the sea," S Satish, Forest Ranger in TN, told media.
Satish further said, "The waste materials deposited in the bottom of the sea bed caused a lot of problem for these species. In fact, many of them were not able to breed because of these materials." "Please don't throw the waste materials into the sea. It's a request for all fishermen, tourist and pilgrims visiting. It's our responsibility to safeguard our environment," he requested.
