The Kerala government on Sunday put the state’s coastal areas on alert after a Liberian-flagged cargo ship, MSC ELSA 3, carrying tonnes of oil and containers with “hazardous cargo”, capsized off the coast of Kochi. All the crew members have been rescued.
“As the oil slick can reach anywhere along the Kerala coast, an alert has been sounded across the coastal belt. The containers are drifting in the sea at a speed of 3 km per hour. Besides the oil in the fallen containers, marine fuel used in the ship has also leaked,” the Chief Minister’s Office said in a statement following a high-level meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary on Sunday.
The vessel had started tilting 38 nautical miles off the coast of Kochi on Saturday. The Coast Guard said the vessel capsized rapidly in the early hours of Sunday “due to flooding in one of the holds”.“All 24 crew members of Liberian-flagged container vessel MSC ELSA 3 were rescued safely, 21 by Indian Coast Guard and three by Indian Navy ship, Sujata, after the vessel sank off Kochi this morning. The vessel was carrying 640 containers, including 13 containing hazardous cargo and 12 with calcium carbide. Additionally, the ship had 84.44 metric tonnes of diesel and 367.1 metric tonnes of furnace oil in its tanks,” the Coast Guard said Sunday in a post on X.After the high-level meeting convened by the state government and attended by officials of the Navy and Coast Guard, the CMO said that around 100 containers are likely to have fallen into the sea.
A defence spokesperson in Kochi said efforts are underway to mitigate the oil spill. “Pollution response is going on. Coast Guard ship Saksham is engaged in oil spill response,” the spokesperson said, adding that a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft was also launched for “pollution response configuration for mitigating oil spill”. An aerial assessment of the situation is underway.
With regard to the containers that are loose in the sea, the spokesperson said the direction in which they drift cannot be predicted. “It depends on the weight of the containers, the amount of air in the containers, (and) the directions of the wind and currents,” said the spokesperson.
The CMO said in an official communication that the containers are most likely to reach the coastal areas of Alappuzha, Kollam, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram.
As part of precautionary measures, the government banned fishing in a 20-nautical-mile area from the sunken ship. This is in addition to a standing instruction against fishing in the wake of heavy rain. People living in coastal areas and fishermen were advised not to touch or go near objects or containers that may reach the shore, and to stay at least 200 metres away from such objects.
If containers get washed ashore, the Factories and Boilers Department has been asked to make ready two Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) each in southern and central Kerala districts, and one each in the northern districts. Besides, in the event of oil slick reaching the shore, the state pollution control board was directed to make ready two RRTs each in the southern and central coastal districts and one each in the northern districts.
The CMO said the Director General of the Coast Guard, who is also the chairman of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response, is taking necessary steps to contain the oil spill. The Coast Guard, the Port Department and the Navy have been instructed to mobilise more containment booms — floating barriers used to contain oil spills — as well as skimmers and other resources to handle oil spill contingencies. Special instructions have been given to district administrations and government departments to handle containers, oil slicks and oil that may sink down to the seabed.
