Chimbai Beach Rejuvenation Project

 Chimbai Beach was once a quaint fishing village. Today, the rocky Chimbai beach in Bandra is the city’s dirtiest, with plastic and household garbage washing ashore and getting stuck in the cracks and crevices. What changed around this 400-year-old settlement that turned a sandy beach into a mini dump yard and has severely affected fishing — once the only occupation of its residents? The village was dotted with just 20 houses that belonged to the fishing community. 

 Around 60 years ago the beach was known to being sandy. In 2017, Chimbai was declared Mumbai’s dirtiest beach, after NGO Reef Watch Marine Conservation carried out a survey of 10 beaches. Members of one of the largest fishing communities said fishing activities had dropped by 98% in the past decade at Chimbai.  They now need to go 3 km into the sea to find fish now.    

 Encroachments grew, the sand was removed for human activity and fishing boats, which could once head to sea from Chimbai’s shores now get stuck in all the plastic. The fishing village originally was just a kilometre long from St Andrews Church to Carter Road. Population rose, the village grew. With nowhere else to throw waste, residents began dumping garbage at the beach or into the sea and the municipal authorities paid little attention to cleaning it.  

 As one of the methods of assessing the project's impact, we documented the marine life at the project site. The presence and absence of species indicated the health of the shore. We developed a checklist based on the zonation of the shore. We engaged M.Sc. students for their dissertation projects and trained them in marine biodiversity studies. 

 We carried out a baseline survey to assess the biotic pressure on the beach. We also conducted beach perception surveys among the local communities. Additionally, we estimated the amount of microplastics present on the shore and performed a crab count along the shore. We engaged 24 corporate volunteers to execute these tasks. 

 As the purpose of this project was to protect the beach using public support and making local communities stakeholders, we proposed conducting regular shore walks for local schools and colleges. We conducted Shore Walks for 1653 participants including the virtual shore walks  during the project period.