Perennial Ship accidents in Mumbai / India are resulting in massive oil spills and environmental disaster
M. V. RAK which sank in the Arabian Sea on August 4, last week approximately 35 km off Mumbai's coast became the 23rd vessel to be involved in an accident during the past 29 years resulting in oil spill around the coast of Mumbai. In all, over 60,000 tonnes of oil has been known to have spilled by these 23 ships into the sea thus frequently ravaging the Mumbai coast and causing destruction to marine life and incalculable loss. The oil spill to hit Mumbai coast so far is half the total oil spilt around the entire Indian coast for the same period since 1982 viz. 113,000 tons as a result of 74 ship accidents.
These are the statistics made available by the Indian coast guards, the designated first response agency to combat oil spills in the ocean. It appears that Mumbai has become prone not only to terrorist attacks but also oil spills from ship accidents taking place in and around Mumbai. Yet there is no agency or system in place to prevent such incidents.
Ship collisions or grounding leading to oil spills has been a perennial occurrence. But this phenomenon appears to have got skewed in the recent past especially for Mumbai. In the past few months more than five accidents have occurred.
On 7th August 2010, Khalijia 3 collided with MSC Chitra off the Mumbai /JNPT entrance channel. Later on 30th January 2011 the naval vessel INS Vindhagiri suffered severe damage after a Cyprus flag merchant ship, M.V. Nordlake collided with it at the entrance of Mumbai harbor.
M. V. Wisdom - owned by a Singapore company- lost her tow some 10 nautical miles off Mumbai on 11th June 2011 while on its way from Colombo to the Alang shipyard in Gujarat. It subsequently got grounded at the popular Juhu Chowpati beach in Mumbai West. However there was no confirmed report about oil spill from this vessel.
The M. V. Pavit which was abandoned off the Oman coast on June 29 drifted all the way and got grounded off Juhu Versova beach in Mumbai West on July 31. The crew members of the abandoned ship had earlier been rescued by a US Naval ship.
M. V. RAK which sank in the Arabian Sea was loaded with 60,000 tonnes of coal and at least 300 tonnes of fuel oil is the latest in the series. One and a half to two tons of oil has been leaking into the sea every hour since 6th August afternoon. There are reports that another vessel is presently drifting towards Mumbai but the authorities prefer to ‘Wait and Watch’.
But for those involved in salvage operations this is all good news. The opportunities are on the rise. According to an official of SMIT Salvage quite a few companies are attempting to make an entry into this field in India. Great Offshore is the latest to get into salvaging operations. For one thing the number of vessels calling at the two Mumbai ports is on the rise and accidents are bound to escalate in future because there being dearth of seafarers the promotions have become faster. Marine officers attain the rank of captain in just six to eight years unlike the past it required at least 12 to 15 years to finally be in command of a ship.