Affects at lest 24,000 hectares of Sundarbans

The Sunderbans is facing unprecedented threats from spreading oil spills from a tanker that sank in the Shela River near Mrigamari in the Sunderbans Tuesday morning. Spilled oil spread to 60 km on both sides of the river and the canals flowing through the Sunderbans affecting at lest 24,000 hectares of the world’s largest mangrove forest. The spilled oil poses a serious threat to the Sunderbans, said forest officials. In money terms, the forest department estimated the damage caused to the Sunderban’s biodiversity at over Tk 100 crore. The estimate of the loss was mentioned in  the general diary lodged with Mongla police station Tuesday night by Chandpai forest range station officer Abul Kalam Azad, the officer-in-charge of the police station Belayet Hossain, told New Age. Sundarban east divisional forest officer in charge Amir Hossain Chowdhury  told New Age Wednesday evening that local people  were trying their best to check the spread of the oil spill into  the canals flowing through the Sunderbans using nets. He said that following request from the forest department Padma Oil Company sucked a small quantity of oil on the waters using its machines. OT Southern Star 7, the oil tanker of a private company, carrying 3.57 lakh litres of furnace oil of Padma Oil Company from its Khulna depot sank on its way to Gopalganj hit by an empty cargo vessel due to poor visibility caused by dense fog, said forest officials. ‘Our primary estimates show that about 24,000 hectares of the Sunderban’s east division has been badly affected,’ Khulna circle forest conservator in charge Kartik Chandra Sarker told New Age Wednesday. Small plants, dolphins, crocodiles and other aquatic life in the affected Sunderbans areas, close to the dolphin sanctuary, have been badly affected, he said.

The oil spill will damage the Sundearbans ecology and no one knows when and how the recovery could be made, he said. He said that two BIWTA salvage vessels – one each from Barisal and Narayanganj, now on their way were expected to reach the affected area Thursday morning. He said that oil, still spilling, was spreading to new areas due high and ebb tides. Already, spilled oil spread to 60 km on both sided of the river from the point where the tanker sank, said Amir Hossain. Oil spread up to the Passure River and several canals flowing through the Sunderbans, he said. He said quoting reports that spilled oil also spread to the Rupsha River near Khulna. He said that as the forest department never  dealt with oil spills it has no technology to clean up or check the spread of spilled oil. Forest officials said that the tanker was on the voyage violating the ban on night movement of vessels on the Passure-Shela-Boleshwar channel. Forest Department’s efforts to enforce the ban proved futile against the influential people in transport business, forest officials  told New Age. Padma Oil Company officials in Khulna said that the capsized oil tanker, originally a sand carrier, was converted into an oil tanker. On Wednesday, the forest department and the shipping ministry formed two separate committees to probe the incident. The forest department formed a three-member committee led by assistant conservator of forests, Belayet Hossain, to find out why and how the tanker sank and ecological damage caused to the Sundarbans by its oil spills, DFO Amir Hossain Chowdhury said. The committee has to submit its report by Friday evening, he said. The three-member probe committee appointed by the department of shipping  led by Captain Gias Uddin Ahmed, a nautical surveyor and examiner of department of shipping, and the committee was asked to submit its report in 15 days, officials said. Many visitors to the spot of the accident   about 20 kilometers from Mongla during the low tides said that they saw thick black and blackish furnace oil floating on the river waters  and a black layer of the spilled oil on  mud on both sides of the river slopes. They said that they also saw layers of spilled  oil had darkened the trunks of the trees dotting the riverbanks.

They said that stench of spilled oil keeps  visitors away. Khulna University’s Environmental Science professor Dilip Kumar Dutta said the oil spills would adversely affect the coastal ecology killing and destroying trees and aquatic life. The oil spills will affect the biodiversity and ecological balance of the Sunderbans, he said. Mongla police station OC said that M Giashuddin, the managing director of Harun and Company, the owners of the oil tanker filed a case over the capsize. Two vessels brought by the tanker owners are trying to salvage the tanker, said supervisor Md Waliullah. The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, Bangladesh Paribesh Andalan and Sundarban Rakkha Jatiya Committee in separate statements demanded immediate government action to save Sunderbans. Committee convener Sheikh Muhammad Shaheedullah and member secretary Anu Muhammad said that flora and fauna, soil and the ecology of Sunderbans is under threat from the oil spilled by the tanker. They said the government took no action against the owners of two ships that had sank in the same area earlier. They reiterated the demand for a Sunderbans policy for the preservation of the mangrove forest from all threats.

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