Marine litter on the beaches of the Kanyakumari, Southern India: An assessment of their abundance and pollution indices

The problem of marine litter is increasing along the Indian coast. For conducting a baseline study to identify and assess the abundance, clean-coast index (CCI), and plastics abundance index (PAI) of marine litter were calculated on the beaches of Kanyakumari, Southern India. A total of 11439 marine litter items were collected and classified into 33 groups along the 7 beaches of Kanyakumari. From the results, plastics were the most abundant items (65.08%) followed by foam (21.93%), along with cloths (4.59%), rubber (3.09%), papers (2.26%), glass (2.16%), metal (0.38%), wood (0.26%), and others (0.26%). The average CCI value (27.24) indicates that all beaches are ‘extremely dirty’; however, the PAI average value (4.37) indicates ‘high abundance’. About 96.87% of the marine litter originates from the land-based sources. This study provides an interpretive framework for further plastic pollution assessment, which could lead to a better marine litter management on Indian beaches.

印度沿海的海洋垃圾问题日益严峻。为开展基线研究以识别并评估海洋垃圾丰度，研究人员在印度南部坎亚库马里的海滩计算了清洁海岸指数（clean-coast index, CCI）与塑料垃圾丰度指数（plastics abundance index, PAI）。本次研究共收集到11439件海洋垃圾，并将其划分为33个类别，采样覆盖坎亚库马里的7处海滩。结果显示，塑料为占比最高的垃圾类别（65.08%），其次为泡沫塑料（21.93%），其余依次为织物（4.59%）、橡胶（3.09%）、纸张（2.26%）、玻璃（2.16%）、金属（0.38%）、木材（0.26%）及其他垃圾（0.26%）。平均清洁海岸指数为27.24，表明所有采样海滩均处于“极度脏乱”状态；而平均塑料垃圾丰度指数为4.37，对应“丰度较高”等级。约96.87%的海洋垃圾来源于陆源排放。本研究为后续塑料污染评估提供了可供借鉴的分析框架，有助于优化印度沿海海滩的海洋垃圾管理工作。