As the beach-lover puts it, “It’s the nature, the ocean, telling us ‘clean me’.City-based lawyer and eco warrior Afroz Shah sees it as an opportunity to pluck waste from the ocean. And what happens when we have another Ockhi?” he questions. “BMC is cleaning the beaches, but the tenders can’t solve the problem of marine litter.“Because of climate change, unsual cyclones and typhoons are heading our way. Besides the Versova beach, trash has washed ashore on Juhu beach, Dadar Chowpatty, Nariman Point, Marine Drive, Madh Island and even Marve.However, it wasn’t all fun and games with the mild cyclone, especially since in the aftermath of Ockhi, the coastline was dumped with a huge amount of litter and waste.Explaining how this plastic affects marine life, Afroz says that in deep sea, it breaks into small particles called nurdles, which when swallowed by fish, causes them a painful death.

“So, if you see people eating fish, they also have plastic on their menu because of it,” he shakes his head. Every Saturday, for three hours, we teach them how to handle plastic at home and not dumping them on the creek. It gets difficult to get across to the older generation, and anyway we’ll pass the baton on to the kids in the long run,” he smiles. Lastly, he adds, it’s provoking everyone around to follow these steps. Passing through the city, it showered Mumbai with moments of relief, and a very warm winter month.According to reports, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s waste management department has estimated over 80,000 tonnes of waste from the ocean being washed ashore in Mumbai. “We’re running a campaign along the creek of Four Bungalow, where around 4,000 slum dwellers live, dumping plastic on the beach.” He insists that immediate action needs to be taken, because if left by itself, the trash may sink into deep sea and never come back again.

Not just that, a precautionary holiday too was declared on Tuesday across schools and colleges in the state, giving more reason to cheer for, along with a pleasant weather.Afroz claims that it’s the mentality that needs to be changed in the long run. And since our oceans are full of plastic at this point, tonnes of it from the stomach of the ocean are churned out China Mini square stool to the shore, thanks to the cyclone,” he explains.For Afroze, gathering citizens and sensitising them is an important part of trying to fix this problem. This form of litter is different from land garbage.The lawyer is currently working towards getting policies for marine litter in place, and emphasises that it’s not just a problem around the beach. He has been tirelessly working on cleaning the Versova beach, which had a 1 km patch full of litter, thanks to Ockhi.”He also believes in the action of regular cleaning, and making homes a zero garbage zone.“When I say provoke, I want to work with children..This week saw Mumbai witnessing moderate rainfall and chilly winds, thanks to the cyclone Ockhi