Plastic pellets wash up on Mumbai and Palghar beaches, environmentalists raise alarm

Tiny white plastic pellets have begun to wash ashore on the beaches of Mumbai and its neighbouring district of Palghar in the past few days, raising concern among environmentalists that they could enter the food chain and damage marine biodiversity.

However, neither the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board nor the municipal corporations in Palghar and Mumbai have taken any action about this as yet.

The pellets, measuring up to 5 millimeters, were first spotted on July 23 at Aksa beach in northwestern Mumbai by a lifeguard.

“They thought it was jellyfish,” said Shaunak Modi, co-founder of the Coastal Conservation Foundation. “When our network informed us, our team reached the beach and realised it was plastic.”

Modi added that they subsequently began to inquire if similar sightings had been reported at other beaches.

On July 24, the group received information about plastic pellets on the beaches at Versova and Juhu, south of Aksa.

Two days later, lifeguard Santosh Tandel found a sack of pellets at Juhu beach near the Citizen Hotel. “It was heavy,” Tandel told Scroll. “When we tore it, we found tiny plastic balls in it.”

The sack bore the name of Hanwha TotalEnergies Petrochemicals – a South Korean company that works in construction, manufacturing, aerospace and green energy sectors. Scroll has sent an email query...

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