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News18
08-07-2025
- News18
Kerala HC Orders Arrest Of Sunk Vessel's Sister Ship After State Seeks Rs 9,531 Crore In Damages
Last Updated: On May 25, MSC Elsa, carrying over 643 containers, including hazardous cargo and plastic pellets, capsized about 13 nautical miles from Thottapally spillway off Kerala coast The Kerala High Court has ordered the conditional arrest of MSC Akiteta-II, a sister vessel of the Liberian vessel MSC Elsa, which sank off the state's coast. The government has filed an admiralty suit and sought Rs 9,531 crore as compensation, including for pollution damage, remedial action taken by the state and the loss of livelihood of fishermen. The ship is currently at the Vizhinjam port in Trivandrum and according to the order, the vessel can leave the port only if the company gives a security for the amount. Advocate General K Gopalakrishna Kurup and advocate Parvathy kottol, government pleader, appeared for the state. In its plaint, the State invoked Section 4 of the Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Act, 2017, to seek compensation, including Rs 8,626.12 crore for pollution damage, Rs 378.48 crore for environmental restoration, and Rs 526.51 crore for economic losses suffered by fishermen and coastal communities, amounting to a total maritime claim of Rs 9,531.11 crore. The State also asked that interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum be awarded from the date of suit till judgment and thereafter at 12 per cent till realisation. It was on May 25 that MSC Elsa capsized approximately 13 nautical miles from the Thottapally spillway off the Kerala coast. According to the admiralty suit, the vessel was carrying over 643 containers, including hazardous cargo and plastic pellets known as 'nurdles'. According to the suit, 'The incident has resulted in massive pollution of Kerala's marine ecosystem, with oil slicks and floating cargo causing serious detriment to the environment, coastal fisheries, and public health." As on June 30, over 61 containers have washed ashore along the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, and Ernakulam, and approximately 59.6 metric tons of plastic nurdles have been collected and transported from Veli Beach to Kollam Port. Manual and mechanical clean-up continues with the aid of 600 government personnel and 300 volunteers under the supervision of the Marine Emergency Response Centre. The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) declared the incident a 'state disaster". Financial relief has been sanctioned to 78,498 fishermen families and 27,020 allied families at Rs 21,000 per person, along with free ration of 6kg rice per head. The fish market has also suffered a severe crash due to contamination fears. The admiralty suit also stated that six cetacean carcasses, including dolphins and a whale, have been found ashore, suspected to have died due to exposure to microplastics and toxic substances released from the vessel. First Published: July 08, 2025, 10:03 IST
The Hindu
19-06-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Nurdle spill from MSC Elsa 3 sparks environmental concerns along coast
From the edge of the waterline on Kovalam's scenic Grove Beach, an irregular line of volunteers extend up the sand to a shallow pit. Muddy seawater fills the makeshift tank, about eight feet across and lined with blue tarpaulin. Water collected in small buckets from the inrush of waves is passed up the line and poured into the pit. Elsewhere on the beach, spread out under the ominous monsoon skies, more men and women use common household implements such as long-handled floor wipes and brushes to painstakingly sift through the sand. 'Since the pellets float, this is the easiest way to separate them from water and sand,' a volunteer explains pointing to the water-filled pit. 'But it is going to be a long process as many more keep coming with the tide,' he concedes. Over the past several days, this strange sight has become routine for beaches across Thiruvananthapuram district as community volunteers attempt to scoop up maddeningly tiny plastic pellets from the sand. Zillions of pellets, also called nurdles, have washed ashore on the southern coast following the sinking of the Liberia-flagged container ship MSC Elsa 3 off Kochi on May 25. Within days of the accident, pellets, each barely 2 mm to 3 mm in size, have invaded every nook and cranny on the coast. It appears like splashes of white paint on the sand from a distance. Over the past five days, the volunteers on the Grove Beach alone have collected and packed two container loads of nurdles, spending close to seven hours a day on the backbreaking work. The Aapda Mitra community volunteers have been hired by the Gujarat-based Marine Emergency Response Centre (MERC), tasked with onshore salvage of cargo by the ship's owners Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), under conditions set by the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA). On the nearby Hawa Beach (Eve's Beach), a big tourist draw at Kovalam, a similar clean-up drive attracts curious stares from visitors. 'I didn't know what they were,' comments Nutan Kumari, a homemaker from Bihar, on the pellets as she keeps a watchful eye over her son who is engrossed in scooping up sand with a toy cup-and-spade set. Footfall on the beach is relatively low at this time of the year as it is the off-season for tourists. Armed with buckets and brushes, volunteers have spread out across the beach, weeding out pellets from the loose sand. It is hard work, and the rainy season does not make it any easier. Here, too, a water-filled pit is used to separate pellets from the sand. Nonetheless, it is also easy to see how the nurdles, pale white and so minuscule that individually they are near-invisible, get dispersed away from the coast. Though not inherently toxic, its tiny size, buoyancy and resemblance to fish eggs make the nurdles an invisible and dangerous pollutant once they enter the ocean. Unsuspecting visitors could easily carry them underfoot along with the mud and sand on their shoes, for instance. There have also been complaints of unbroken bags of pellets being found in the lower reaches of the Neyyar river, perhaps reaching there through the estuary with the tides. The nurdle spill from the ship has been only one, albeit a critical one, of Kerala's environmental worries since the sinking of MSC Elsa 3. On her way to Kochi, the vessel, laden with 643 containers, started listing dangerously some 14.6 nautical miles from the coast, dislodging scores of containers, including several containing suspected hazardous cargo, into the sea. As of June 15, 61 containers have been recovered from the Kerala coast, according to a June 15 sitrep on the accident by the Directorate General of Shipping. The shipping disaster has worsened the troubles of the district's fisher community during the southwest monsoon season. For decades now, the fisher community here has been battling coastal erosion and the loss of work on account of inclement weather, says Valerian Isaac, a 58-year-old fisherman from Anchuthengu. 'Now, the fear that dangerous cargo from the ship may have mixed up with the seawater has hit fish sales as well. Atop this, debris from the ship, including the pellets, have washed ashore in multiple locations along the coast. The tides keep carrying them in and out,' Isaac says. Shortly after the nurdle spill, the Marine Monitoring Lab under the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala, described it as the 'first major incident of plastic nurdle landings in India caused by a shipwreck.' The tiny granules, or pre-production plastics made from materials such as polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride, are the base material for other plastic products. In pellet form, they are easy to transport, and every year, millions of tonnes get shipped across the globe. Ingested, these pellets pose a danger to marine organisms, including fish, as they can cause intestinal blockages. Over time, they can break up into even tinier fragments, entering food chains and human diets, says A. Biju Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS). And the nurdles keep on coming, adding to concerns about plastic pollution and effective strategies for tackling it. The menace has hit the shorelines all the way from the Kerala coasts to Kanyakumari and Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu. Its continuous replenishment along shorelines presents an ongoing environmental concern, according to an assessment of the Director General of Shipping. While clean-up operations are proceeding, fresh deposits necessitate sustained manpower to prevent secondary pollution. Approximately 65 tonnes of nurdles have been collected from across affected shorelines, it says. Sekhar L. Kuriakose, Member Secretary, KSDMA, feels that the task of clearing the nurdles is going to be a time-consuming process, given the magnitude of the dispersal. 'The removal of nurdles is going to be a long-term exercise, which may take at least a year-and-a-half to complete. If the experience of the Sri Lankan nurdle spill following the MV X-Press Pearl cargo ship accident in 2021 is anything to go by, it could even take up to five years,' says Kuriakose. The back-to-back ship accidents and the impacts of the harsh monsoon season have hit the State hard. The MSC Elsa 3 accident was followed by the fire that destroyed the Singapore-flagged Wan Hai 503 following an onboard explosion. The fire accident was reported further north off the Beypore coast. The accidents occurred at a most inopportune moment for the State, which is looking to expand its maritime horizons with the recently commissioned International Seaport at Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram. Harmless as they may seem at first glance, the plastic pellets, in reality, pose long-term and multidimensional impacts, experts point out. The pellets function as toxic sponges adsorbing hazardous substances such as heavy metals, antibiotics, persistent organic pollutants, microbial contaminants, and other emerging pollutants from the surrounding environment, says S. Bijoy Nandan, Dean, Faculty of Marine Sciences, at the Cochin University of Science and Technology. 'Once ingested by marine organisms, these contaminated nurdles act as vectors, introducing toxins into the food web. Over time, these pollutants can bioaccumulate and biomagnify in higher trophic levels, including humans, potentially disrupting vital physiological and biochemical functions,' explains Dr. Nandan. Furthermore, in both the water column and seabed, nurdles can bind with organic matter and can become a pseudo-food source for zooplankton, fishes, crustaceans and molluscs, facilitating their entry into the marine food web and enabling widespread trophic transfer across ecosystems, he says. Anu Gopinath, Professor and Head, Department of Aquatic Environment Management, KUFOS, shares similar concerns. 'Right now, everyone is worried about the microplastic pollution and the impact on fish resources. True, it is a major concern, especially for pelagic fishes as the pellets still in the ocean could have accumulated at different depth zones. But we also have to take into consideration long-term effects such as airborne contamination once these lightweight pellets break up into even tinier, nano granules. At nano sizes their detection turns problematic,' says Dr. Gopinath. Moreover, a real picture of the nurdle spill will emerge only when the rain subsides and the weather settles, according to her. Dr. Gopinath also underscores the need for observation along the entire Kerala coast, as seasonal shifts in ocean currents could carry the pellets far and wide. Friends of Marine Life (FML), a Thiruvananthapuram-based NGO working on marine biodiversity research, recently showcased the challenges confronting Kerala on account of the twin shipping disasters at the United Nations Ocean Conference in France. Robert Panipilla and fellow researcher Kumar Sahayaraju urged the United Nations to establish and enforce international regulations governing the maritime transport of chemical and plastic pollutants. 'Environmental disasters can be prevented to a considerable level through strong, enforceable laws and corporate accountability. The recent disasters underscore the need for Kerala to have a standard operating procedure concerning maritime emergencies,' feels Panipilla. Local self-government institutions and coastal communities need to be taken into confidence for addressing related issues and challenges, he feels. 'Moreover, public attention has largely concentrated on objects that have remained afloat on the sea. Wastes from the wreck would also have settled on underwater marine habitats,' he cautions. The Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation has expressed concern over the pace at which the clean-up of the pellets and the removal of containers is taking place. 'The impacts of the accident hit the fishing community first. People are reluctant to buy fish, fearing that they may be contaminated. Steps should be taken to alleviate the fear and speedy recovery of all the containers,' says Jackson Pollayil, State president the federation. The fishers of the State, who were bearing the brunt of the monsoon fury, have now one more reason to be worried about. The nurdles. The tiny granules have hit their lives in a big way, even harder than the violent waves.
Hindustan Times
13-06-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
All oil tanks of sunken ship plugged, no evidence of leakage: DGS report
Kochi, The Directorate General of Shipping on Friday said that capping and plugging of all identified fuel oil tanks of the Liberian-flagged ship which sank off the Kerala coast last month, has been completed and there is no evidence of oil leakage in the vicinity of the wreck. According to a situation report issued by the DGS, the oil containment measures have temporarily stabilised the situation, but full risk mitigation will happen only on successful commencement of saturation diving to extract the remaining trapped fuel oil from the vessel, MSC Elsa 3. "Delays in mobilisation of saturation diving equipment have already shifted the initial operational timelines," it said, adding that according to the salvors, hot tapping and oil extraction will take around 24 days weather permitting. The DGS said it has directed the salvors to submit two revised schedules "one optimistic, assuming good weather, and one realistic, accounting for monsoon disruptions". Besides this, the report also states that efforts to recover the Voyage Data Recorder were not yet successful and the diving operations for it will continue. The SEAMAC III vessel, from which the divers were working, has returned to Kochi for conversion to saturation diving operations and the process is expected to take three days, the report said. Regarding the clean-up process along the shoreline, it said that the Marine Emergency Response Centre has reported that 58 containers have been delivered to port with one small container piece recovered during the day and the hydraulic oil barrels have also been secured. The nurdle recovery is continuing, but is taking time as more of it is being deposited on shores due to wave action, it said, adding that a beach-cleaning vacuum unit from Bengaluru was en route for field trials. "The overall volume of nurdles recovered remains significant, requiring continued large-scale manpower engagement. The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation has recommended further increasing volunteer deployment to accelerate shoreline recovery. "Meanwhile, MERC continues to maintain daily site-wise cleanup activities across affected districts," the report said. On Thursday, authorities had given the salvors and owners of the vessel 48 hours to begin and complete the extraction of oil leaking into the sea, warning that failure to act will lead to civil and criminal charges. The ship had sunk approximately 14.6 nautical miles off Thottappally in Kerala's Alappuzha district. The vessel went down carrying 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide. It was also loaded with 84.44 metric tonne of diesel and 367.1 metric tonne of furnace oil, according to the Ministry of Defence. The vessel sank with oil still trapped inside. On June 11, Kerala Police registered a case of rash navigation against the ship's owner, master, and crew. An FIR registered by the Fort Kochi Coastal Police Station states that the owners, master, and crew handled the vessel which was carrying combustible and explosive cargo dangerous to human life and property in a negligent manner, leading to its sinking on 24-25 May near Alappuzha district.
Indian Express
11-06-2025
- General
- Indian Express
Fire in container ship off Kerala contained considerably, inner decks still burn
After three days of sustained firefighting, the Coast Guard said the massive blaze on the Singapore-flagged vessel M V Wan Hai-503 has been considerably contained. The Coast Guard said its ship deployed a three-member team comprising divers and salvors in a Chetak helicopter to the deck of the vessel. It said they successfully secured the towing hawser (a rope or cable used to tow vessels) on the ship, connecting it to the Coast Guard ship Samudra Prahari, which now contains its movement. This prevents the ill-fated container ship from drifting to the coast. Once two or three tow lines are placed, it will be handed over to tug boats, which will pull the vessel away from the coast. The Coast Guard said the salvors were from the Marine Emergency Response Centre of Vishwakarma Mechanical Works, Gujarat. 'The container vessel continues to drift approximately 42 nautical miles off Beypore in Kerala within the exclusive economic zone of the country. The ship, which is carrying 2,128 MT of fuel and hazardous cargo, still poses an environmental risk. The Coast Guard, with air and sea assets, has largely contained the fire. Inner decks still burn. Salvors winched onboard to aid towing. Unfavourable seas persist. Focus remains on extinguishing the blaze and preventing a marine disaster,'' the Coast Guard posted on X. Kerala Disaster Management Authority member Secretary Shekhar Kuriakose said securing the towing hawser on a burning ship is 'a significant achievement.' Four Coast Guard ships — Samudra Prahari, Sachet, Vikram, and Samarth — with helicopters, are positioned around the vessel for firefighting and coordinating pollution response in case of any oil or chemical spill. Residual smoke is still visible from the distressed vessel. Ships Arnvesh, Rajdoot and Kasturba Gandhi are undertaking search operations for the 4 missing crew of the vessel. An official communication said, about 24 containers had fallen off the vessel and are likely floating or have sunk. The Single Point Mooring owned by Bharat Petroleum has been asked to keep a close watch to deflect any floating containers to prevent damage to the installation.
