Kerala Government has declared the wreckage of ship ELSA 3 in the Arabian sea 14.6 nautical miles off the Kerala coast as a State-Specific disaster considering the potentially serious environmental, social, and economic impact.
Tinku Biswal, Principal Secretary said that the maritime incident has raised serious environmental concerns including the potential for oil spill and drifting of debris including cargo along the coastline of the State. The ship carrying more than 643 containers, was reported to have capsized on May 25 off the Kerala Coast near Thottappalli in Alappuzha District.
The order permits the State Disaster Management Authority to mobilise resources, including personnel and significant sums of money from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), for expeditious relief efforts.
Joy Thattil, a Kochi based maritime lawyer, said the State governments in consultation with the Centre are capable of issuing such notification and carrying out actions to mitigate or curtail disasters like oil spillage. This is not the first instance in India wherein a State Government has issued such a notification. In 2017 the Tamil Nadu government took a lead in responding to the collision off the Chennai coast which caused an oil spill, in an effort to respond, manage and mitigate environmental damage to the coast of Tamil Nadu, he said.
In the present case, it is likely that the Kerala State Disaster Management Fund will be utilized to initially manage the disaster, along with aid from the National Disaster Management Fund. The owner of the vessel, can be called upon to contain the oil spillage, remove the wreck etc and to deposit the funds. If the shipping company is not willing, the government can taken action against the firm involving Admiralty jurisdiction, he added.
Pollution liability
The Mercantile Marine Department (MMD), Kochi, has also issued a pollution liability warning to the vessel owner of MSC ELSA-3 and further that the owners have appointed T&T Salvage to recover containers, remove oil, and clean up the environment, he said.
The sinking of the ship also forced the state government to ban fishing activities within a 20 nautical mile radius of the wreck site, prompting the fisher-folk to seek compensation.
Environmental experts pointed out that the presence of plastic pellets (nrurdles) washed ashore is an alarming substance and it is the first major incident of plastic nurdles landings in India caused by a ship wreck. They are not inherently toxic, but their small size, are dangerous pollutant. The arrival of plastic nurdles on Kerala’s coast is a wake up call for India’s coastal management, shipping safety and marine conservation. The local communities should avoid handling unknown plastic pellets and the liability of the plastic pellet spills should be fixed to the shipping company and they should be made liable for clean up as well.
Grinson George, Director of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute launched a study to assess the changes in the marine environment following the ship wreck on the coastal areas of Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram to understand various types of marine pollution associated with the ship wreck.