Chennai’s famed Marina Beach, the second-longest in the world, has become the focal point of the jallikattu protests since Tuesday. With thousands of demonstrators shouting “We do jallikattu” on the sands of the Marina, garbage and plastic waste is mounting, as food packets, water bottles and protest paraphernalia are handed out all through the day to those gathered.
Dilip, a Chennai businessman, who frequently helps in clean-up drives across the city, said that he had gone to the protest on Tuesday evening. “We realise that we can’t control the litter given the huge number of crowd. We can’t control the amount of plastic and bottles that are coming in.”
With very few bins on the Marina Beach, volunteers like Dilip decided to issue instructions to the protesters asking them to help keep the beach clean by not throwing away the litter. Instead, they asked them to accumulate the trash in one section of the beach, so it would be easier to collect the trash. Around 40 to 45 garbage bags and sacks were also arranged so that the trash could be collected for disposal.
“We have been collecting all the waste from the beach and accumulating it at one place near the main road, the Chennai corporation people are coming and collecting it,” said Jagadeesh, a businessman.
Dilip pointed out that while the Chennai corporation was attempting to clean the area around the protest, they were unable to do so because of the large crowds and police barricades.
And while there is a shortage of garbage bags, Dilip said that the clean-up, just like the protests, are spontaneous, with protesters like him placing the onus on the crowd to keep the Marina clean.