What should one do when confronted with a beach littered with plastics, papers, and plenty of other decomposing items? Scrunch your nose, take a deep breath, and walk away. Not if you’re Afroz Shah, the man in charge of cleaning the Versova beach.
Afroz Shah is a lawyer by profession and an environmental activist by passion. He is best known for organizing the world’s largest beach clean-up project, which included the clean-up of Versova Beach.
The beach clean-up project, which was started with cleaning and filtering the Versova beach has now become a massive movement. It has inspired many to clean up their surrounding areas for a clean, breathable, and unwashed environment.
Afroz Shah is the man behind cleaning Mumbai’s Versova beach and has driven many to be a part of this movement.
Winning renowned entitlement by the UN and crafting Bollywood celebrities, Afroz Shah cleaned up to 9 million kgs of garbage and dumpsters on the Versova beach. Mad4India clinches to shine the story of Afroz Shah.
Versova Beach – One Trash At A Time
Versova Beach, near Andheri, is one of Mumbai’s most beautiful beaches. Many tourists and civilians come for an evening walk or a jog before sunrise. But, Versova beach has its landfills piled up with obscene garbage and dumpsters.
In October 2015, Afroz Shah was frustrated with the pile of decomposing waste that had washed and left the Versova beach brittle. He decided to clean it. Along with an 84-year-old neighbor, the pair started cleaning the beach themselves.
The largest beach clean-up drive was joined by many volunteers and nearly took 108 weeks to clean the Versova beach. It took almost two years to sweep the rubbish and junk. The volunteers would meet up every Sunday to clean the beach.
Along with cleaning the Versova beach, Afroz Shah and his volunteers used to educate about sanitation and cleanliness among the people in slum areas.
The United Nations named Afroz Shah a Champion of the Earth in 2016 for his enormous contribution to the Versova beach clean-up project. It is regarded as one of the largest civilian initiatives in the world.
Even though there are laws, policies, and regulations to keep a check on these things, if a community doesn’t have a sense of belonging, things will fall apart. As a society, everyone needs to come together to sustain the environment.
After hooking Mumbaikars on the revolutionary drive to clean up Versova Beach, Afroz Shah shifted his focus to the Mithi River.
He partnered with Dawood Bohra’s Turning the Tide campaign to remove plastics from the river. He also plans to clean the Dana Pani beach in Mumbai.
Afroz Shah also won the CNN Heroes of the Year Award 2019. The Prime minister, Narendra Modi also praised him for his courageous work towards the transformation of the Versova beach from filth and garbage.
It should not even be mentioned, but while the government is responsible for enacting laws and policies to ensure a clean environment, citizens are equally responsible for the actions taken.
The planet Earth is not doing fare in terms of environment and nature. Across the glove, it can be seen through climate change, unwanted rain, and extreme heat waves. Thus, everyone can take a small step across their surrounding areas to help sustain the environment, just like Mad4India does.
Sources of information – The Logical Indian, Wikipedia
To know more about Afroz Shah, please check – Wikipedia, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook
If you loved reading this story, you can also read about Why We Need To Take Single-Use Plastics Ban in India Seriously
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