ANNOUNCEMENTS
Gharapuri Island, in the Mumbai Harbor is a World Heritage tourist site known for its Historical Elephanta caves that are visited by more than 1 million tourists every year. The island is surrounded by wetlands and mangroves rich in biodiversity. These ecosystems along the coasts are constantly being dumped with debris flowing in with the sea tides. The debris accumulating along the coasts from the land based and marine based sources consists mainly of non-biodegradable products such as plastics in various different forms. This kind of accumulation not only spoils the aesthetics of a World Heritage Site but also harms the coastal environment of the Island over a period of time.
This study thus aims to track the plastic contamination from the identified inland sources and identify points of accumulation of plastic waste generated along the coast of the study area, analyze the dispersion patterns of marine debris from and to the coast of Gharapuri in the Mumbai Harbor due to the surface and wind currents and suggest a waste management plan that can be implemented to successfully manage the plastic contamination issue on the Island.
The points of plastic contamination along the coasts were identified all around the island near the three villages, however as mentioned by the island officials and an NGO Director, most of the waste is generated from the Shet bundar village near the Elephanta caves while the waste accumulation at the other points identified around the Island were very minimal. However, a heavy accumulation of plastic debris accumulation is observed all over the wetlands and the mangroves of the island deposited during the receding high tides. This accumulation was observed to increase during the Monsoon season which is also supported by the direction of surface currents towards the island from the Arabian Sea. Lastly, the waste management plan includes the suggestion of laying down the process of collecting and transporting the wastes generated to the nearest Port to the island at Nhava Sheva on the mainland.
KEYWORDS: Gharapuri Island; Mumbai Harbor; Plastic Waste; Marine Debris; Waste Management; GIS; Elephanta Island, WRF.
