Coastal Cleanup in Porbandar Removes 700 kg From Chowpati Beach
700 kg of Marine Waste Removed as 750 Volunteers Join Coastal Cleanup at Porbandar
Around 750 people gathered at Chowpati Beach in Porbandar on Saturday to remove marine waste as part of International Coastal Cleanup Day 2026.
The Indian Coast Guard organised the Porbandar drive with the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) under the “Swachh Sagar – Surakshit Sagar 2026” (SSSS 5.0) campaign. Volunteers collected about 700 kg of marine litter, including plastic, fishing nets, glass, metal and organic waste.
The participants included school and college students, NCC cadets, fishermen’s associations, non-government organisations, residents and government officials. The beach was split into six sections so that teams could work across the site in an organised manner.
Volunteers were given gloves, garbage bags, caps and masks before the cleanup began. The collected waste was separated by type and later handed over to the Porbandar Municipal Corporation for disposal.
The cleanup was held on the third Saturday of September, the date on which International Coastal Cleanup Day is observed each year. The Indian Coast Guard has been coordinating the activity in India since 2006. Its official records show that the campaign has been held across India’s coastal states and Union Territories as part of efforts to reduce marine litter and encourage people to keep beaches clean.
The Porbandar event formed part of the wider Swachh Sagar Surakshit Sagar 5.0 campaign being conducted across India in September.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences had planned the 2026 campaign from September 12 to September 19, ending with International Coastal Cleanup Day. A government review in May said the week-long programme would involve wider public participation and coordination between government institutions.
Other coastal locations also held cleanup activities during the week. At Digha in West Bengal, a September 12 programme involving around 100 participants was organised as a lead-up to International Coastal Cleanup Day. The participants included students and officials from the Marine Aquarium and Regional Centre, the National Institute of Ocean Technology and the Indian Coast Guard.
The campaign has also been reported at several locations in Karnataka, where students and local groups took part in beach cleaning and awareness activities.
The national campaign website describes International Coastal Cleanup Day as an annual event held on the third Saturday of September. Its purpose is to remove rubbish from beaches, increase public understanding of ocean pollution and encourage action to protect marine and coastal areas.
Beach litter is often made up of material that can remain in the environment for long periods. Plastic is a major concern because larger pieces can break down into smaller particles and enter marine food chains.
Discarded fishing equipment is another concern for coastal areas. Nets and other fishing gear can remain in the sea or along the shoreline and may pose risks to marine animals.
For a fishing city such as Porbandar, keeping the coastline free from waste has direct local importance. Fishing communities depend on healthy coastal waters for their work, while the city’s beaches also attract residents and visitors.
The Porbandar cleanup included fishermen’s associations among the participating groups, giving people who work around the sea a role in the collection and sorting of waste.
The Indian Coast Guard’s involvement in coastal cleanup campaigns goes back two decades. The force says it has coordinated International Coastal Cleanup activities in India since 2006.
Past figures show the scale of the problem faced along India’s coastline. Coast Guard records for earlier campaigns show that thousands of volunteers have taken part across the country, with marine litter running into tens of thousands of kilograms in some years. The records also show participation by schools, colleges, NCC cadets, municipal bodies, NGOs, fishing associations and other government and civil organisations.
Gujarat has also recorded substantial participation in previous drives. Coast Guard data for 2021 listed 2,077 volunteers in Gujarat and about 8,663 kg of marine litter collected during that year’s campaign.
The figures vary from year to year because the number of participating locations, volunteers, and the amount of waste found at each site changes.
The 700 kg collected at Porbandar on September 19 gives a clear measure of what was removed from the beach during the event. The longer-term question is how much waste reaches the coastline after a cleanup and how much can be prevented from getting there in the first place.
That makes waste segregation and disposal important parts of coastal protection. At Porbandar, the collected material was separated before being handed to the municipal corporation.
The 2026 campaign has therefore combined physical cleanup work with public participation and awareness activities. The wider programme has involved government agencies, educational institutions, volunteers and coastal communities at locations around India.
For Porbandar, Saturday’s exercise ended with the segregated waste being handed over to the municipal authorities and a group photograph of participants. The immediate result was the removal of 700 kg of litter from Chowpati Beach. The larger task remains reducing the amount of waste that reaches the sea and coastline in the first place.
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