21 February 2010
A.V. Ragunathan (Special Correspondent)
The Hindu
Killai Town Panchayat has passed a resolution
CUDDALORE: The Killai Town Panchayat, in which the Pichavaram mangrove forests are located, has taken concerted efforts to protect ecology by totally banning plastic usage both on the land and offshore.
Pichavaram that boasts of having the second largest mangrove forests in the world, and situated about 15 km from Chidambaram, has happened to be a major tourist attraction.
Harmful to ecology
The visitors, who come to the place year-around, leave the plastic litters that are found to be highly harmful to ecology. Hence, the Killai Town Panchayat has passed a resolution banning the plastic usage.
Chairman of the Town Panchayat Mr K.Ravichandran told The Hindu that as a follow-up measure, the civic body had provided bins at important junctions for the disposal of garbage.
The garbage was being segregated as biodegradable and non-biodegradable. The Chairman further said that while going for fishing the boatmen used to carry plastic water bottles and food packed in plastic covers.
They were in the habit of discarding the used plastic articles in the high seas, thus, making the sea a dumping yard and marring its beauty. Therefore, to prevent such an unhealthy practice he organised an awareness programme among fishermen to impress upon them the need for bringing back the used plastic articles and dispose them of in the bins provided on the shores.
It had started yielding results as the fishermen had now started scrupulously adhering to the direction of the civic body.
The message of safeguarding ecology too was inculcated among the students.
Mr Ravichandran said that today a rally was organised in the Town Panchayat, in coordination with the CREED, a non-governmental organisation, to spread the message of preserving ecology by particularly giving up the usage of plastic articles.