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Thursday March 28, 2024

Don't leave your trash behind - keep Kund Malir clean

By Lubna Jerar Naqvi
March 15, 2017

If you are sick and tired of the crowded and littered beaches spanning the coastal line from Sea View to French Beach and beyond, don't worry there is one lesser explored beach off Karachi coastline.

A beautiful beach awaits you, all you have to do is drive four miles out of Karachi to see the beautiful, serene and most importantly still relatively clean beach of Kund Malir.

Kund Malir - located around 150km off the Makran Coastal Highway and around as mentioned above a mere four hour drive away from Karachi - caresses the Balochistan province off the Arabian Sea. With no huts, except for one building on the beach and a small teashop off the road, this beach is an excellent uncluttered natural space for one to relax.

The white crest crowns the blue clear waves that lap the golden beach of Kund Malir - clean and serene. The deep blue clear of the water only adds a relaxing hue to this natural picture that is now missing from most beaches of Pakistan.

Kund Malir is located on a secluded part of the coast of Pakistan predominately inhabited by fishermen, who get sustenance from the sea and live nearby in simple wooden huts.

And for now there are very few people around who are there to spend a day at the beach. But unfortunately even this small number of visitors are leaving their mark in the form of rubbish and waste on the beach despite requests from the travel agencies that organize these exclusive trips to the beach.

A member of Hiddenture - an organization that offers trips all over the country - said, "We tell the groups we take to Kund Malir and other locations not to litter and collect the waste in bags. But no one listens and they habitually throw the waste around them. This small pile of waste will soon become a waste dump."

"The beauty of Kund Malir is that it is not crowded and still in its original form - so to speak. And it is great people actually want to come visit despite the misconceptions about the situation in Balochistan but the downside is that more people will bring more trash with them." He added.

If you have had the good fortune to visit Kund Malir surely you will be awed by the splendour of this beautiful place - the peaceful environ away from Wi-Fi and all other distractions is such a pleasant feeling that most people living in the hustle bustle of Karachi will love.

And as the member of Hiddenture said this beautiful scenic image is marred by the trash that is fringing it. Fortunately, the damage to this scenic location is minimal at the moment and can be contained but from past experiences in other places all over the country, we can rest assured that the trash will increase as the visitors increase. It's a given.

Of course it is the responsibility of the authority to ensure that beaches - and other areas of the country are kept clean. But we have seen how well that goes with the mountains of trash scattered all over Karachi. So it is requested that those spending a day at the beach make it their own responsibility to clean up after them.

Next time you plan a visit to the beach, do remember to pick up the trash when you leave so that our beaches are clean. We should not leave our dirty prints everywhere we go. Our cities are dirty enough, we don't need to dirty natural habitats that are home to a large number of other living things. If we don't care for our children and our own wellbeing, we should think about keeping the environment clean for others - it's the least we can do.

Pictures from Hiddenture Facebook.