KERALA TOURISM NEWSLETTER
Plastic-free Kovalam
Kovalam, one of the beautiful beach destinations in Kerala is going to be an eco-friendly destination sans plastic. Plastic-free Kovalam project has been launched at Kovalam on the World Tourism Day by Mr. A.P. Anilkumar, Minister for Tourism, Kerala.
The project was started with an aim to find solution for the garbage issue at beach resorts and to make Kovalam an environment-friendly destination for tourists. Under this initiative shopkeepers will be provided with cloth or paper bags and plastic carry bags will be collected from them. Initially 6,000 cotton bags will be supplied to shopkeepers free-of-cost.
To highlight the plastic-free campaign various boards and hoardings will be placed at entry points of the beach destination. Kerala Tourism will place dust bins on the Light House, Eve's and Samudra beaches.
To create an awareness on the hazards of plastics, around 2,000 leaflets with the details of hazards have been distributed to all those who depend on Kovalam for their livelihood.
Women from around Kovalam will be given employment opportunities in the unit of manufacturing cloth bags and the bags will be supplied to the shoppers at the actual cost of production. Steps have also been taken to reduce the use of mineral water bottles by tourists.
A committee will review the project's working every month. The project has been implemented with the support of Kerala Tourism, Kerala Tourism Protection Development Council (KTPDC), Hotel Udaya Samudra and the Association of Tourism Trade Organisation's India (ATTOI).
