Adv. Afroz Shah, UN Champion of the Earth, Counsel, Bombay High Court
Afroz Shah is synonymous with the world’s largest citizen-driven beach clean-up project. He spearheaded the Versova beach clean-up drive. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) called it the world’s largest beach clean-up in history and awarded Shah UN’s top environmental accolade – ‘Champions of the Earth’ award (Equivalent To Noble Prize In Field Of Environment Protection) at Cancun in Mexico, making him the first Indian to achieve such a feat. So far, he has been successful removing 23+ million KG plastic and filth from the ocean, beaches, creeks, rivers, forests. He has been tackling marine litter by cleaning the rivers, beaches, ocean and mangroves since 2015.
Inspired By Afroz Shah & Community Cleanup, UN Launched Global Clean Seas Campaign. In Afroz’s Words “The cleaning will continue till the ocean is made plastic and filth free”. Shah has shifted focus to the Mithi river since November 2018.
Afroz has been voted “Indian of the Year, 2017” by CNN News18 and International Sensation Award by DARPAN – CANADA 2018. He has been a keynote speaker at: Smithsonian Earth Optimism 2017 (Washington DC, USA), Le Conclave Art Of Change Conference 2017 (Paris, France), German Pavilion – United Nation 2017 (New York, USA), Ocean Conference – European Union 2017 (Malta), Sixth International Marine Debris Conference 2018 (San Diego, USA), National Conference On Marine Debris CoMaD 2018 (MBAI), INDIA, Global Citizen – Movement Makers Summit 2018 (New York, USA), Climate Change Leadership – Porto Summit 2019 (Portugal), Ocean Pioneers – Norwegian Shipowners Association (Oslo, Norway) and Spark Gala – Spark Global Philanthropy 2019 (Vancouver, Canada).
