Starting a month-long drive on September 27, the youngsters collected waste reaching Indian shores from countries like Sri Lanka, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia
After a gap of one month, when meeting friends and relatives, Soumya Biswas and his five friends in Odisha faced a common question – “Why do you look tired, tanned and slimmer than usual?” Most could not comprehend how this group of friends could have undergone such physical changes in such a short duration of time. There was only one answer – They were all busy cleaning the 24 km Astaranga beach in Puri, Odisha, collecting five tonnes of waste.
Since 2014, Soumya, along with his friends and cousins, have volunteered to clean beaches, raise awareness about the conservation of Olive Ridley turtles, change the mindset of people and conduct workshops on the hatching and protection of turtles.
“The beach is…