Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jayanti Natarajan on Thursday disclosed that as many as 40 ships were stranded at different places off the Indian coast, but said that there was “no immediate danger” from these vessels.
Interacting with the media after holding talks with various stakeholders on safety measures needed to protect the country’ fragile coastal eco-system, Natarajan favoured the setting of a corpus aid quick response to fight oil spills off the Indian coast.
Simultaneously, the Minister called for strong environmental laws to deal with shipping vessels that damage India’s fragile coastal eco-system, including provisions for establishing criminal liability.
Alluding to the threat posed by 40-odd ships stranded off the Indian coast, Natarajan said that the matter is under control, since the shipping authorities were monitoring the entry and exit of ships in Indian waters. “If need be, we will invoke the Environment Protection Act (to deal with errant shipping vessels),” she said.
Rooting vehemently for the creation of a corpus fund to combat oil spills off the India coast where crude oil leakages from stranded ships and pipelines of the oil companies had become a regular feature, she said: “The cleaning operation after the oil spills, often got delayed due to lack of clarity about who would fund it. She said, a corpus fund would come in handy under such circumstances and the cleaning up operation could begin immediately, thereby limiting damage to the environment”.
“The outgo from the fund would be reimbursed once the compensation liability is established and claims settled,” the minister said.
Natarajan said the corpus size and the pattern of funding would be finalized after eliciting inputs from various stakeholders and holding consultations with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister A K Antony and Shipping Minister G K Vasan.
When her attention was drawn to two ships stranded currently off the Mumbai coast, the minister said: “I specifically requested information about two ships which are currently two miles and 10 miles away from Mumbai coastline. I have been assured that the matter is within hand and that there is not too much petroleum on board the ships”.
Natarajan said the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) had some experience in this regard, acquired while dealing with multiple oil slicks during 2010. She said the Maharashtra model would be studied further.
The minister asked the Central Pollution Control Board and the various state pollution control boards to review the status of existing pipeline networks at major ports to identify vulnerable areas that would need replacement or up-gradation.
Natarajan also exhorted the oil companies to upgrade their existing pipelines with monitoring systems like SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) to regularly monitor the health of pipelines.
Earlier in the day, she held a two-hour-long meeting with senior officers of Ministry of Environment & Forest, Department of Environment, Government of Maharashtra, DG Shipping, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trusts, Indian Coast Guards, public sector oil marketing companies and ONGC on initiatives needed to protect the country’s fragile coastal eco-system.