Media Release
Qatar, Feb 5: Tulu Koota beach cleaning drive organized by Qatar Environment Campaign started with Al Shamal Beach cleaning on January 23. The next stop of the campaign was at Wakra Beach on Saturday January 24 and last but not least, beach cleaning at Umm Bab, on Friday January 30 and the drive continued.
Al Shamal Beach on January 23:
Tulu Koota volunteers and members assembled at Layan Garden and in two buses they started their journey at 8.00 am sharp towards Shamal beach on a mission of cleanliness drive. Both the buses reached the beach at 9.15 am. By that time few more people had already assembled there who came in their own cars. Out of those gathered many were ladies and family members including children.
Local representative of Tulukoota in Al Shamal Lokesh Poojary greeted everyone with light snacks and a cup of tea. Tulukoota president Ravi Shetty welcomed the gathering for the noble work of cleaning mother earth.
Then people split into batches of two, wore hand gloves and with a garbage bag in hand, started collecting the waste materials along the beach almost to a stretch of one km.
It was low tide period and water had moved to a far off place within the sea. Volunteers could fetch lot of plastic waste, water bottles and alcohol, nylon ropes, glass pieces, rusted iron and pipes, plastic pipes, polythene bags and lot of abandoned materials from the shipping boats. Volunteers garbage bags filled in no time and it was a hard time for them to bring the loaded bags to the base station on the shore. Around 30 bags of the filled in garbage bags were collected and dumped into the nearby municipality garbage bin. We could hear the sigh of relief from some of the members with a satisfying look as he has contributed something for the mother earth. Rising sun also took a toll on few members and they realised the hardships our workers go through in hot sun.
At around 11.15 am as it was heading towards prayer time, members again assembled at the base point. Tulu Koota president Ravi Shetty thanked every one who made the mission a success. Past presidents of Tulu Koota Seetha Ram Shetty and Ramachandra Shetty along with nominated engineer member Navin Hegde, Sridhar Nayak, Sudhir Kotian, Nithesh, Yashapal, Sunil, Mohan along with many Tulu Koota members actively participated in the cleaning drive and made the mission meaningful and successful.
Wakra Beach Cleaning on Saturday January 24:
Taking further the non stop campaign the Tulukoota volunteers headed towards yet another beach on Saturday January 24 morning at 7.00 am. Many members took time off from their work schedule and came together for the Wakra Beach cleaning.
Even though it was a working day the spirit was high and enthusiastically the volunteers came together and cleaned the beach.
It was high tide period and lot of floating waste and plastic bottles were visible for volunteers to pick up. They could fetch lot of plastic wastes, water-bottles and alcohol, nylon ropes, glass pieces, rusted iron and pipes, plastic pipes, polythene bags and lot of abandoned materials from the shipping boats.
Volunteers garbage bags filled in no time and it was hard time for them to bring the loaded bags to the base station in the shore. Around 20 bags of the filled in garbage were collected and dumped into the nearby municipality garbage bin. We could hear the sigh of relief from some of the members with a satisfying look as he has contributed something for the mother earth.
Tulu Koota president Ravi Shetty thanked everyone who made the mission a success. Past presidents of Tulu Koota Diwakar Poojary, Seetha Ram Shetty and Ramachandra Shetty along with nominated engineer member Navin Hegde, Sunil, Mohan, Yashpal, Shekhar and many Tulu Koota members actively participated in the cleaning drive and made the mission meaningful and successful.
Next Stop of the campaign, beach cleaning at Umm Bab, on Friday January 30:
Tulu Koota members who are ever enthusiastic towards the environmental related issues, took another expedition to save the mother earth on a weekly off day on Friday, January 30. This time the beach cleaning operation was planned for Umm Bab beach. Tulu Koota member, local resident of Umm Bab Prakash Shetty had surveyed the beach well in advance and identified the spots where cleaning was essential.
A team of 55 members including 8 children of 6-12 years of age, of Tulu Koota gathered at Layen Garden. The team started off from Layen garden sharp at 7.30 am as planned in a bus and couple of cars. They covered the distance of 100 kms to Umm Bab and reached the beach by 9.00 am. Tulu Koota past president Seetharam Shetty welcomed the gathering and explained that the Indian cultural center under the instruction from Qatar government has started this campaign on creating an awareness on environment. He said Tulu Koota is trying to reach out to maximum number of people under the stewardship of Tulu Koota president Ravi Shetty as this is the 16th of such a campaign. Navin the nominated member engineer of this campaign briefed everyone and children in particular that they should pick up plastic items, battery, e- waste, metallic tins, glass bottles etc. Wood and paper can be ignored as they are bio degradable.
Then all volunteers after putting on the handgloves, with a garbage bag in their hand dispersed off to collect the waste in the beach and its vicinity. There was big hoarding put up on the beach by Qatar Petroleum which read as 'you do your bit to save the earth. Do not litter' which was very meaningful and eye catching.
As Umm Bab is a picnic spot it appears that people come here, put tents and stay overnight. Many such temporary tents were visible there. Situation at the beach was pathetic and hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles and polythene bags were thrown on the beach. Tulukoota members once they started clearing the litter within no time the garbage bags in their hands were getting full. They covered almost one kilometer distance along the beach the collection was quite substantial and impressive.
The cleaning drive continued for full two hours non stop. The enthusiasm among the children was unparalleled. All members gathered back at the base station at 11.15 am.Tulu Koota president Ramachandra Shetty proposed the vote of thanks. He thanked Tulukoota local resident Prakash Shetty for planning and arranging the campaign at Umm Bab. He also thanked everyone who sacrificed their Friday morning for this noble cause of saving the mother earth.
After a group photograph, the members tied their respective garbage bags and dumped them inside the municipality garbage bin. After a light refreshment they proceeded towards Doha. Thus a one more very successful campaign by Tulukoota ended for the day.