Sea of Plastic Swallows Chennai’s Coastline After Cyclone Montha Spares City
Chennai’s beaches buried in plastic after Cyclone Montha’s rains.
While Cyclone Montha may have spared Chennai its direct impact, the aftermath has brought a different kind of devastation — heaps of plastic waste carpeting the city’s once-lively coastline. From Srinivasapuram and Pattinapakkam to Marina Beach, tides have washed up tonnes of garbage, turning the seafront into a vast dumping ground of single-use plastics, liquor bottles, thermocol fragments, and invasive water hyacinth.
A visit to the Adyar estuary revealed that the waste, deposited overnight by outgoing tides, appears to have been flushed out from the river system after heavy rainfall. Residents and fishermen describe the scale of debris as “unprecedented,” calling it the result of years of unchecked dumping into the Adyar River and stormwater drains that ultimately discharge into the Bay of Bengal.
“Every time it rains or the river opens up, the sea throws back what the city dumps into it,” said K. Bharathi, president of the South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association. For fishing communities, the crisis has become existential. “We catch more plastic than fish now,” said Murugan, a traditional fisherman. “Our daily income has dropped from 500 rupees to nothing some days. The sea that once fed us is choking.”
Also Read: Priya Kapur Upholds Sunjay’s Legacy Amid Intensifying Inheritance Dispute
Conservancy workers of the Greater Chennai Corporation face an unending cycle of cleanup operations. “By the time we clear one stretch, the next tide covers it again,” said one worker near the estuary, loading plastic waste into a tractor. Environmentalists also condemned recent footage showing heavy machinery burying waste under the sand rather than disposing of it properly — a move experts warn could worsen microplastic contamination.
Marine biologist Dr. T.D. Babu explained that such plastic residues eventually fragment into microplastics, which marine organisms mistake for food. “They block digestive tracts, cause internal injuries, and release toxic chemicals like benzene and styrene into the food chain,” he said. “From plankton to fish to humans, these pollutants accumulate silently. What we’re seeing is a slow-burning public health crisis.”
Babu urged authorities to install floating barriers and booms along the Adyar River, at least 100 metres before its mouth, to trap plastic waste before it reaches the sea. As Chennai’s beaches turn into dumping grounds, conservationists say the city’s battle against pollution is no longer about aesthetics — it’s a fight for survival of both marine life and human livelihood.
Also Read: Udhayanidhi Stalin Conducts Surprise 1 a.m. Inspection at Chennai Command Centre
