By IANS,
Bhubaneswar: Orissa Thursday formed a crisis group to monitor the pollution caused by oil spill from a sunken Mongolian ship near Paradip port, an official said.
“We have formed a crisis group comprising several experts and officials. The group would be led by the chief wildlife warden, Orissa,” state Environment Department Director Bhagirathi Behera told IANS.
The central government had asked the state Oct 6 to form a crisis group involving state pollution control board, Coast Guard, port authorities, wild life orghanisations, forest department, and local administration.
“We have formed the group on the basis of the central government’s instruction,” Behera said.
The vessel, sailing under a Mongolian flag, ran aground Sep 9 in the harbour area off the port in Jagatsinghpur district, some 100 km from here, with 924 tonnes of furnace oil and about 25,000 tonnes of iron ore fines on board.
Twenty-seven crew members were on board. All but an Ukrainian engineer, whose body was found 10 days later, were rescued.
The spot where the ship went down is close to the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, one of the world’s few remaining nesting sites for the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles that come to the area every year around this time to breed.
If the oil spill spreads, it could pollute the marine environment and pose a serious threat to the turtles, a wildlife forum has warned.
“The crisis group will monitor the pollution and submit a report to the central and state governments,” Behera said.