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 11,439 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. • 11,439 marine litter items, and their density of 6.71 items/m² were identified. • Plastic litter with an average density of 4.37 items/m², was the most abundant. • The average value of CCI (27.24) indicates the beaches were ' extremely dirty '. • The PAI (71.43 %) confirmed that five beaches have ' high abundance '. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]