7 months ago
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In the aftermath of the 2 back-to-back shipwrecks disconnected the seashore of Kerala, which raised superior interest astir lipid spillage posing menace to marine biodiversity, the State authorities volition framework a elaborate lipid spill situation absorption program to forestall lipid spills and mitigate the interaction of the spillage.
The Ministry of Defence, the nodal ministry for handling crises arising retired of the spill of lipid and hazardous and noxious substances astatine sea, has directed the State to notify the program successful enactment with the 1 precocious prepared by Tamil Nadu. For Kerala, with a coastline of astir 590 km on the westbound seashore and adjacent to the planetary shipping channel, the hazard of lipid spills is precocious arsenic the Vizhinjam International Seaport is hardly 10 nautical miles from the east-west shipping lane connecting Europe, the Persian Gulf, southeast Asia, and the acold east, 1 of the large lipid tanker routes of the world.
Speaking to The Hindu, S. Sreekala, chairperson of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), said a Bengaluru-based bureau has been selected for preparing the plan. The bureau volition survey the characteristics of the oversea on the Kerala seashore and hole a contingency program successful enactment with the nationalist contingency plan. “The plans volition specify the modular operating procedures (SOP) to beryllium followed by antithetic agencies successful the lawsuit of an lipid spill,” said Ms. Sreekala.
As per a directive of the Centre, the State has present constituted a seven-member halfway radical headed by the Chief Secretary, successful summation to lipid spill situation absorption groups astatine the State, district, and section levels to negociate lipid spill incidents. However, the committees constituted astatine the section and territory levels, did not actively impact section self-government institutions, drafting disapproval from catastrophe absorption experts. The State-level situation absorption radical has 26 members, the territory groups, 27, and and the section groups, 16 members.
In the latest shipwreck, the State and Central agencies had to hold until the southwest monsoon was implicit to region the bunker lipid from the sunken Liberian-flagged instrumentality vas MSC Elsa-3, which sank disconnected the seashore of Kerala connected May 25, 2025.
