New Delhi:  Greater than 50 per cent of marine litter was contributed by single use plastics, it was discovered beneath the pan-India coastal monitoring and seaside clean-up actions from 2018-2021 undertaken by the Nationwide Centre for Coastal Analysis (NCCR), Chennai at common intervals, the Parliament was knowledgeable on Wednesday.

“The ‘Seaside Litter Survey’ has additional revealed that the utmost litter accumulation happens within the backshore than within the inter-tidal zone. Furthermore, city seashores have larger accumulation charges than the agricultural seashores,” Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh instructed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

Samples from coastal water, sediment, seaside, and biota are analysed for micro/meso/ macro plastics air pollution. A rise within the abundance of micro-plastics is noticed alongside the east coast of India, throughout the monsoon. The stations nearer to the river mouth had larger numbers of micro-plastic concentrations, he mentioned.

The NCCR, an connected workplace of the Ministry, is enterprise analysis actions in quantifying litter within the seashores (macro, meso, and micro-plastics) within the coastal water, sediment, and totally different biota together with industrial fishes, bivalves, and crustacea. Information on the extent of micro-plastic air pollution was generated for the east coast of India and the west coast is proposed to be assessed shortly, the Minister mentioned.

The targets of the UN Clear Seas programme embody pressing and concerted motion towards marine litter and plastic air pollution by establishing a Nationwide Marine Litter Motion Plan to quantify the full marine litter footprint in Indian coastal waters, to scale back move of plastics into the ocean and creating consciousness to the general public on marine litter and plastic air pollution, he added.

(IANS)