Staff Reporter :
Oil of the sunken tanker keeps on spreading fast to the rivers and its surrounding water bodies though it was tugged to the shore near Joymoni forest at around 11:30am on Thursday after two days of its capsize in the Shela River in Sundarabans.
The flora and fauna of the Sundarbans and its ecology are in danger as the furnace oil from the tanker in the river of the word’s largest mangrove forest has already spread nearly 70 kilometers.
The salvage vessels of Ms Harun & Company, owner of the sunken oil tanker ‘Southern Sat 7’, dragged it to the shore before two navy ships – Shah Paran and Akter Uddin – and two other rescue vessels sent from Barisal and Narayanganj reached the spot.
On Tuesday morning, the oil tanker carrying 3.57 lakh litres of furnace oil sank in the river after collision with another weight carrying trawler on Tuesday morning. Officials said design of the oil tanker was faulty and it was made locally. The salvaged tanker also looked like a passenger launch.
The authorities, however, primarily planned to engage local people and fishermen in cleaning up the spilled oil using foam and other oil-sucking materials. Meanwhile, the entire Sundarbans forest is facing disaster and destruction after oil spillage from the tanker. The area where the oil spillage has taken place is a Government declared visitation ground of Dolphins.
Forest officials also said the furnace oil from the capsized vessel also spread to different canals and rivers through various channels and it may wreck havoc on the forest and its wildlife and fish and other aquatic animals.
The layers of oil and oil slick were visible on the water in different parts of the Shela River, including Mrigmari, Joymoni, Beltala, Nandabala and Andharmanik areas, which are feared to hit a vast tract of the Sundarbans, spelling a potential environmental disaster for it.
The Forest Department on Wednesday filed a Tk 100 crore compensation suit against the owners of the Southern Star 7 for Tuesday’s oil tanker capsize in the Shela River, causing seriously spillage of oil over a huge area.
Besides, Sundarban is an important water front of UNESCO world heritage and a globally important water front declared by United Nations. According to the regulation of those two foundations of United Nations, water transport is prohibited in this area of Sundarban.
Although objection was raised more than once from forestry division and from officers of United Nations water land related organization Ramsa and Science education and history related organization UNESCO to stop this water path yet no step was taken by the Government to do so.
Earlier, officers’ of Bangladesh Internal Water Transport Owners’ Organization had informed that two trawlers in the name of Prottoy and Nirbhik shall rescue the sunken trawler from Narayanganj and Barisal on Tuesday. Till yesterday no operation was conducted to rescue the trawler or to remove oil in order to control pollution.
Country Director Paulin Tenesis of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) yesterday in a written statement said that the United Nations had asked the Government to stop all kinds of business Water Vehicle transport within Sundarbans. If water transport like this is allowed through forestry then it will cause destruction of animal life in the long run, he said.
Paulin Temesis said that the locality of Sundarbans where oil spillage has taken place is a roaming ground of two endangered dolphin species of the world. Besides many famous water animals are present there he said. Sundarban has been declared by UNESCO as a global heritage.
For this, United Nations is disturbed by this incidence in Sundarbans.
The Forest Department also formed a three-member probe committee, headed by Belayet Hossain, the Chandpai range assistant conservator of forest under the Sundarbans West Zone, to look into the incident and asses the extent of damage of environment and biodiversity of the Sundarbans due to the spillage of furnace oil following the capsize.
Besides, the government also formed a three-member inquiry committee asking it to present its report by 15 working days.
Following the tanker capsize, the government on Wednesday banned the plying of all kinds of vessels through the Shela River route of the Sundarbans until further notice.
Environmentalists had long been calling upon the government to close waterways through the Sundarbans as it may invite a potential environmental catastrophe.
In 2011, the Forest Department has asked the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) not to use Sundarbans waterways as UNESCO declared it a world heritage site in 1997.
