New Delhi: On Mumbai's Versova beach, it was once hard to see the sand amid the endless sea of plastic bags and trash. The long stretch of coast had essentially turned into a dumping site until volunteers banded together to clean it up. A few months later, olive ridley turtles began nesting there for the first time in 20 years.

Now municipal authorities are taking a new step in the battle against the plastic waste that afflicts Mumbai and so many other cities across the country by criminalising the use of plastic bags with fines of up to $US366 ($495) and jail sentences for repeat offenders.

Shoppers carry non-plastic bags during rains at a market in Mumbai on Saturday. Credit:AP

India actually has a low consumption of plastic of just 11 kilograms per capita compared with Western countries where up to 10 times that amount is consumed each year, but its cities and water sources are visibly affected by plastic pollution.

In Mumbai especially, the long coastline is plagued by floating plastic litter. In the monsoons, when the seas rise and splash over onto roads, piles of plastic trash litter the city's pavements and roads.