No cause of concern over oil spill: Natarajan

Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natrajan has said, there was no need to be alarmed about the oil spill off the Mumbai coast. Talking to reporters in New Delhi today, she said that the situation was being dealt with by the Coast Guard.Cargo vessel MV Rak, which sank off Mumbai three days ago, is leaking oil and Coast Guard ships sprayed dispersants today to contain the oil spill, which has spread to about seven nautical miles around the ship.

A Ministry of Environment and Forests press release said,according to the Maharashtra Government, the spill on the Juhu coast is a localised phenomenon due to some other reasons and not due to the RAK spill. The RAK had about 290 tonnes of furnace oil and 50 tonnes of fuel oil apart from 60000 tonnes of coal and the incident happened at about 25 nautical miles away from the coast.

Navy spokesperson Manohar Nambiar said,the Coast Guard, being the designated national agency for management of oil spills, has stationed their oil pollution response vessel Samudra Prahari at the site to deal with pollution arising from the sunken vessel. Coast Guard has launched Operation Suraksha 02/11 to prevent damage to the fragile marine environment along Maharashtra coast.

The oil slick is being neutralised by Samudra Prahari, using oil spill dispersant and the Coast Guard is also using helicopters to monitor the situation and for aerial spray of the dispersant to contain the oil spread.

The State Government has kept the Mumbai Municipal Corporation and the district collectors in a state of readiness to clean up the shore in coordination with Coast Guard and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board.

The MPCB have requested National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) to ascertain loss to marine life if any. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has deputed teams to take water samples and to identify the oil content and the source.

The ramifications of the ship Pavit being docked on Juhu beach since the last few days are also being examined. The MPCB has started monitoring and sea water sampling since yesterday at Mumbai coastal areas such as Gateway of India, Dadar, Juhu, Versoa, Gorai, Mahul, and in Navi Mumbai areas.