A massive cleanup transformed this beach. Now it's a turtle hatchery

This Mumbai beach was a dump.

Picture: Getty Images / INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / Contributor

But - thanks to a massive clean-up effort - hatchlings from the vulnerable turtle species Olive Ridley have been spotted for the first time in decades on Versova beach.

About 80 hatchlings made their way into the Arabian Sea from their nests. It was the first sighting of Olive Ridleyson the beach in over a decade, according to The Wire.

Volunteers slept on the beach to protect the hatchlings from predators.

The clean-up took two years.

Troubled by the mounting rubbish on the shore, Afroz Shah, a lawyer, launched the citizen-based weekend clean-up program ('the "world's largest beach cleanup project", according to the United Nations) in 2015.

Picture: Getty Images / INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / Contributor

Picture: Getty Images / INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / Contributor

Picture: Getty Images / INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / Contributor

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