Ban single-use plastic' campaign in Tamil Nadu
Ghani said the war against plastic has been engaging serious attention of nations across the world.
Chennai: Underlying the serious concerns for a coastal state like Tamil Nadu to address the critical issue of plastic pollution, both on land and in water bodies not to forget the Bay of Bengal robust efforts would be taken towards mass campaign for educating people to stay off 'single-use plastics', said noted environmentalist Abdul Ghani.
Recalling his recent meeting with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) chief Erik Solheim, who is in India in connection with the World Environment Day (WED) 2018 summit at Delhi on June 5, Ghani said the war against plastic has been engaging serious attention of nations across the world and "it is high time we in Tamil Nadu take this up on a war-footing".
He said he would initiate steps for a mass campaign in Chennai on return from the WED Delhi summit, which would be led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi sharing the dais with prominent global leaders including Erik Solheim.
This year's WED theme is 'Beat Plastic Pollution' "and we cannot ignore the call being a populous state with a large urban concentration, and being a coastal state", Ghani said, pointing to the UN concerns over more than eight million tones of plastic leaks into the ocean each year, which is equal to dumping of a large truckload of garbage into the sea every minute.
A publication last May noted that 43 countries, besides 80,000 individuals, "representing half of world's population', had taken the 'Clean Seas' pledge to eliminate single-use plastics and microbeads.
Sadly, India does not figure in the list; perhaps it will post-WED2018.