The Marine Cemetery is an

art installation Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often cal ...

located at Beypore beach in

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, India dedicated to nine endangered marine and riverine species. It is made up of 2,000 plastic bottles that had been previously collected from the beach. It was opened in 2019.

History

The Marine Cemetery is dedicated to marine and riverine species which are

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

due to

plastic waste Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are cate ...

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of Body of water, water bodies, with a negative impact on their uses. It is usually a result of human activities. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and ...

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, and

overexploitation Overexploitation, also called overharvesting or ecological overshoot, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to ...

. The installation is an awareness initiative. In November 2019, a team of about 80 volunteers cleaned up Beypore beach, and collected over of plastic waste which they handed over to

Kozhikode Municipal Corporation Kozhikode Corporation is the municipal corporation that administers the city of Kozhikode, Kerala. Established in 1962, it is in the Kozhikode parliamentary constituency. The first mayor was H. Manjunatha Rao. Its four assembly constituencies ...

for recycling. 2,000 plastic bottles were left behind which were later used for building the installation. The monument was made by Climate Activist Aakash Ranison & initiated by Jellyfish Watersports in collaboration with the Beypore Port administration, the authorities of

Kozhikode district Kozhikode (), is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala, along its southwestern Malabar Coast. The city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, is the district headquarters. The Kozhikode Municipal Corporation has a corporation l ...

, and under the Clean Beach Mission of the

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is an Government of India, Indian government Ministry (government department), ministry. The ministry Portfolio (government), portfolio is currently held by Bhupender Yadav, Union ...

. It was opened on 4 December 2019, the World Wildlife Conservation Day, by S. Sambasiva Rao,

District Collector The district magistrate, also known as the district collector or deputy commissioner, is a career civil servant who serves as the executive head of a district's administration in India. The specific name depends on the state or union territo ...

of Kozhikode, and

V. K. C. Mammed Koya V. K. C. Mammed Koya is an Indian politician from Communist Party of India (Marxist), who was the Member of the Legislative Assembly representing Beypore constituency in Kozhikode district in the Kerala Legislative Assembly and was the mayor of ...

, MLA for Beypore constituency.

Installation

Aakash-Ranison-World-First-Marine-Cemetery-Calicut-Kozikode-Kerala-India-Climate-Change-Activist-Responsible-Traveller-2

The installation has nine markers, each dedicated to an endangered marine and riverine species, built with plastic bottles encased in gravestone-shaped iron frames. Eight of these markers are in height, and are dedicated to the

seahorse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine Osteichthyes, bony fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meanin ...

parrotfish Parrotfish (named for their mouths, which resemble a parrot's beak) are a clade of fish placed in the tribe Scarini of the wrasse family (Labridae). Traditionally treated as their own family (Scaridae), genetic studies have found them to be dee ...

, leatherback sea turtles,

eagle ray The eagle rays are a group of cartilaginous fishes in the family Myliobatidae, consisting mostly of large species living in the open ocean rather than on the sea bottom. Eagle rays feed on mollusks, and crustaceans, crushing their shells with th ...

sawfish Sawfish, also known as carpenter sharks, are a family of very large rays characterized by a long, narrow, flattened rostrum, or nose extension, lined with sharp transverse teeth, arranged in a way that resembles a saw. They are among the lar ...

dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest ...

zebra shark The zebra shark (''Stegostoma tigrinum'') is a species of carpet shark and the sole member of the family Stegostomatidae. It is found throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific, frequenting coral reefs and sandy flats to a depth of . Adult zebra shar ...

, and the

hammerhead shark The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks that form the family Sphyrnidae, named for the unusual and distinctive form of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a Hammerhead shark#Cephalofoil, cephalofoil (a T-shape or " ...

. One of the markers is in height, and is dedicated to the endangered native freshwater fish species Miss Kerala.

References

{{reflist Climate change in art Monuments and memorials in Kerala 2019 establishments in Kerala Buildings and structures in Kozhikode district

History

Installation

See also

References