“There is a chance the cargo, including containers and oil, will wash ashore. The public, if they see such cargo, should not go near it or touch it and should inform the police immediately,” he said
Thiruvananthapuram: Authorities in the southern Indian state of Kerala were scrambling to contain an oil spill on Monday after a container vessel sank, leaking fuel into the Arabian Sea and releasing 100 cargo containers into the water.
The Liberia-flagged MSC ELSA3 ship was travelling from Vizhinjam on India’s southern tip to Kochi when it capsized about 38 nautical miles off Kerala on Saturday, officials said, adding that all 24 crew members had been rescued.
The entire ship has since been “submerged”, the Kerala chief minister’s office said in a statement on Sunday without elaborating on the cause of the incident.
“The Coast Guard is taking steps to block the oil with two ships. A Dornier aircraft is also being used to spray oil-destroying powder on the oil slick,” the statement said.
The vessel was carrying 640 containers, including 13 with “hazardous cargo” and 12 with calcium carbide, the Indian coast guard said, without disclosing the contents of the containers that fell into the sea.
Cyprus-based MSC Shipmanagement, which owns the vessel, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Kerala coast has been put on high alert, with local coastal bodies instructed not to touch or go near the containers – some of which began washing up on beaches on Monday – and fishermen advised not to venture into the sea.
Authorities in the state’s Kollam region have encouraged people living nearby to move to safer places.
Accidental oil spills in the ocean can have far-reaching effects, putting marine ecosystems to the local fishing industry at risk.
The collision of a BW LPG vessel and a local ship carrying heavy fuel oil caused a similar oil spill in 2017 near the southern city of Chennai, which harmed aquatic life and affected the livelihood of thousands of fishermen.
The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) on Saturday said that dangerous cargo, including oil, has fallen into the Arabian Sea off the Kerala coast and cautioned the general public against touching the containers if they wash ashore.
KSDMA member secretary Sekhar Kuriakose, in a voice note shared with reporters, said that the information about the dangerous cargo falling into the sea was received from the coast guard.
“There is a chance the cargo, including containers and oil, will wash ashore. The public, if they see such cargo, should not go near it or touch it and should inform the police immediately,” he said.
He also said that there was a possibility of oil films appearing along the coast in some areas.
Kuriakose also said that the coast guard has confirmed that the vessel was carrying Marine gasoil (MGO) and Very Low Sulfur Fuel Oil (VLSFO).
Agencies