Odisha’s Chandra bhaga Beach on the coast of Konark is set to become Asia’s first to get the Blue Flag certification for maintaining cleanliness and environment standards.
The blue flag certification is awarded to clean and environment-friendly beaches that strictly comply with 33 environment and tourism-related conditions.
The standards were established by the Copenhagen-based Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) in 1985.
As part of the ‘Blue Flag Project’ initiated by the Union Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change (MoEF & CC) last year, 13 beaches across the country were selected by their respective State Governments.
The Society of Integrated Coastal Management (SICoM) is facilitating the blue flag certification process by way of developing required infrastructure on the beaches.