Chennai residents who want to join weekend beach clean-up drives can now register through QR-enabled mini stalls being installed by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) in partnership with the Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI).
The first ‘Kadal Pottis’ stall was set up near the Lighthouse on Saturday, coinciding with the International Day for Coastal Cleanup. More units were planned over the weekend at Kovalam and near Ashtalakshmi Beach in Besant Nagar, according to EFI founder Arun Krishnamurthy.
The stalls are part of the Blue-Green Chennai initiative, a joint GCC-EFI effort focused on building public awareness around wildlife, coastal protection and the safeguarding of waterbodies. People visiting the beaches can scan the QR code and register to participate in clean-up activities organised by EFI.
Krishnamurthy said awareness and volunteer participation were important to the sustainable management of Chennai’s beaches. EFI currently organises beach clean-up activities every Friday and during weekends, with the new registration system intended to bring more participants into the programme.
The initiative is also being linked to wider public-awareness activities across the city. In the previous week, walls in areas including Adyar, Kovalam and Sholinganallur were painted with wildlife-themed artwork as part of the Blue-Green Chennai drive.
GCC commissioner G Sameeran said the registration-stall initiative would be expanded to more beaches within the city and that additional units would be installed in the future. The expansion would give the civic body and its partner organisation a more visible system for connecting volunteers with scheduled clean-up activities at different coastal locations.
EFI also plans to extend the programme beyond Chennai’s municipal limits to beaches at Kovalam, Mahabalipuram, Kalpakkam and Kottakuppam in Chengalpet and Villupuram districts. Krishnamurthy said the organisation would work with the respective district authorities for this expansion.
The next planned upgrade is to allow the units to dispense cleaning kits, including gloves and bags. This would enable people to begin cleaning beaches immediately instead of waiting for a formally scheduled activity. EFI also plans to allow participants to post selfies from their clean-up drives after completing the activity.
The initiative places volunteer registration, equipment access and public awareness within the same beach-management effort. Its immediate implementation will focus on adding stalls at the identified beaches and expanding the network in coordination with the GCC and district administrations.
