Meet the 21-year-old who has cleaned over 1000 tons of trash from Mumbai beaches
When Malhar Kalambe came back to his home town Mumbai after visiting Bali in 2017, the despicable state of the city’s beaches hit him right in the gut; and unlike most of us who only let out a sigh of disappointment at the dismal state of affairs in our country before moving on with our lives, Malhar felt responsible for the mess and took it upon himself to clean it.
The Dadar Beach Clean Up –
Starting with Dadar beach, the place where he grew up, he rounded up a few friends and together, they picked up the trash and plastic waste littered by the tourists all along the coast. This laid the foundation of Beach Please, a cleanliness drive to make our water bodies free from the trash. Malhar Kalambe was soon joined by thousands of volunteers, mostly college students, who believe in the cause.
After spending many weekends cleaning up the Dadar beach, which did yield some substantial results, Malhar realised that the source of Dadar beach’s trash was Mithi river, also known as Mahim river which is clogged with domestic as well as industrial waste. And so began the second phase of the cleanup drive which aims at removing garbage and plastic waste from the Mahim river.
While the only little support that Malhar gets from the government is in the form of excavators and trucks to collect the waste which the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai provides. Malhar funds all the other equipment like gloves, masks, cleaning tools and other things required for the task. Despite facing financial crisis while running the campaign, the young environmentalist never even once thought of turning his back on the project. So far, the Beach Please initiative has been able to remove over 1000 tons of waste from the shores.
Malhar believes that Indian’s don’t feel personally responsible for their natural resources and believe it to be only the government’s responsibility to preserve natural resources. The CA aspirant, along with the volunteers, devotes his time cleaning up the beach every weekend and believes that more people should join the cause.
Malhar Kalambe awarded by the United Nations –
Recently, the 21-year-old was also awarded the Volunteer For Change award by United Nations India which recognized the young people who are working towards improving the lives of their community. The young activist doesn’t want to stop at cleaning just the beaches. His bigger aim is to clean up the ocean and continue his efforts to conserve the environment.
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