Cleaning up oceans with fishermen

Kozhikode NGO fights ocean plastic pollution, involving fishermen and communities in cleanup efforts, expanding to other harbours.

A Kozhikode-based non-governmental organisation has launched a war against plastic pollution in the ocean and plans to rope in fishermen, local communities and environmental organisations into it. The Universal Karmic Foundation (UKF)’s Ocean Cleanup Trash Project has been launched in Chombala harbour in Kozhikode district on an experimental basis.

Barely three years old, the UKF originated from Onchiyam panchayat in Kozhikode with its current headquarters at Nadapuram. The Ocean Cleanup Trash Project is the brainchild of Baiju Lakshmi, chairman and managing director of UKF. “It was during the hours that I simply gazed into the ocean after depositing my mother’s funeral ashes in it, that I realised the amount of plastic that is washed ashore,” Mr. Lakshmi said. With an experience in fish vending, he was familiar with the fishermen in Chombala and roped them in to materialise the project. “I knew that fishermen come across a lot of plastic during deep sea fishing and promptly deposit it back into the ocean. I asked them to store it and hand it over to us. We even paid them a remuneration and awarded those that brought in the most trash,” Mr. Lakshmi said.

The UKF initially sourced the services of 70 trawlers in the harbour, with five employees each. They were provided with bags to collect the trash, uniforms and even diesel for the boats.

“We are developing a new culture. It costs a bit. But we are funding it ourselves for the time being”, he added. The UKF plans to expand the project to other harbours step by step.

Besides the Ocean Cleanup project, the UKF has also stepped into providing medical support and educational support to marginalised sections. The UKF is also planning to encouraging ‘Good Karma’ by highlighting good deeds of people through its social media platform ‘UKB’, which is to be launched soon.