Sea turtles and dolphins return to Mumbai after 20 years

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After 128 weeks of relentlessly cleaning up Versova, Mumbai’s dirtiest beach, marine life has finally started to recuperate from the choking pollution.

After 20 years, around 80 Olive Ridley sea turtles have hatched and dolphins, which were once elusive, have been seen regularly, becoming an example of the success of the community in reviving the coastal ecosystem.

Afroz Shah, a lawyer who led the world’s largest marine litter clean up at Versova, told CGTN, “We are witnessing dolphin activity on a regular basis. Dolphin and Olive Ridley populations started depleting due to mass plastic waste and unsustainable fishing in the area.”

Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphins and porpoises were once seen in large numbers along the Mumbai coast. Shah’s relentless effort to remove waste later won support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and state government.

Locals formed the Versova Residents’ Volunteers (VRV) for to clean up the beach on a large scale every weekend. Together, they moved more than 14 million kg of mostly plastic waste which had been dumped on the beach.

According to experts, female Olive Ridleys often travel from the sea to the beach to lay eggs, but the litter was acting as a barrier. World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) research shows females Ridley turtles return to the very same beach from where they were first hatched to lay their eggs.

During this phenomenal nesting season, more than 600,000 females emerge from the waters over a period of five to seven days to lay eggs. “Unable to find their way to the beach, pregnant turtles return to the sea. By any chance, if they are successful in hatching the egg, then young ones get entangled in the trash,” Shah added.

Volunteers cleaning up litter on Versova beach in Mumbai /Afroz Shah Photo

Though still found in abundance, Olive Ridley numbers have been declining over the past few years, and the species is recognized as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Jubilant over marine life teeming again at the beach, Shah and volunteers claim the endangered turtles and dolphins revival has proved that the mounting pile of marine litter can be controlled.

Concerned over the amount of massive plastic waste entering the oceans, UNEP warns that if this trend continues then almost 33 billion tons of plastic will have accumulated in the sea by 2030 - and more than 12.7 million tons of plastic has already entered the ocean.

A significant part of debris entering seas includes cigarette filters, plastic bags, fishing equipment, and other tough to recycle packaging material. UNEP revealed in a report that between 60 and 90 percent of all marine debris was manufactured using at least one type of plastic polymer.

“Plastic materials are broken up by waves and sunlight to form microparticles that are less than 5mm in diameter. These tiny fragments end up in the stomachs of marine life,” the report stated.

Shah pointed out that it is not an easy task to remove solid waste from Versova, or any other polluted place. The collected waste needs segregation and disposal.

VRV partnered up with Bombay Municipal Corporation to ensure the waste is segregated and sourced to the correct recycling units, but for volunteers the challenge is to deal with non-recyclable single-use plastic that has a limited resale value.

Erik Solheim, head of UNEP, impressed by the local efforts to clean Versova beach, participated in a clean-up drive in 2016.

Impressed with the restoration of the coastal ecosystem, he said in a tweet on March 24, “It’s been 20 years since Olive Ridley turtles were seen on Mumbai's Versova beach. Thanks to the city's green crusaders, they are back!”