Lok Sabha Question No. 179 (STARRED), answered on 2021-02-12
Subject: Incidents of Oil Spills
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION No. *179

TO BE ANSWERED ON 12.02.2021

## Incidents of Oil Spills

## *179. SHRIMATI MANEKA SANJAY GANDHI:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of incidents of oil spills occurred in the Indian Ocean during the last four years;
- (b) whether an oil spill pollutes fragile coastal ecology and marine biodiversity and if so, the details of ecological and environmental impacts thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has prepared any policy for tackling/handling the incidents of oil spillage in the Indian waters for prevention of damage to the flora and aquatic life cycle and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether  oil  spillage  also  affects  mangroves  and  fishermen  and  if  so,  the  details thereof; and
- (e) the  steps  taken  to  combat  oil  pollution  in  the  coastal  and  marine  environment  in various maritime zones?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

- (a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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## Statement  referred  to  in  reply  to  parts  (a)  to  (e)  of  Lok  Sabha  Starred Question No. 179 to be answered on Friday, the 12 th February, 2021 (Magha 23,  1942  Saka)  on  'Incidents  of  Oil  Spills'  by  ShrimatiManeka  Sanjay Gandhi.

- (a) The  Indian  Coast  Guard  (ICG)  has  reported  that  annually  80,000  to  1,00,000  ships transit  through  the  Indian  Ocean.  The  movement  of  ships  and  associated  activities  of loading/ unloading and transfer of materials has resulted in five (5) cases of oil spill  in the Indian Maritime zones in the last four years as mentioned below:
- (b) Oil spills adversely impacts intertidal flora and fauna and coastal environment leading to  mass  mortality  of  flora  and  fauna,  choking  of  highly  mobile  species  like  crabs, clogging of water canals, loss of foraging grounds for shore birds and loss of nesting grounds for turtles. The residual oil from spill can vertically settle down in the sea-bed for prolonged durations causing long-term effects on the benthic environment. Similarly, oil spill also adversely affects port infrastructure, harbours, beaches, wildlife, fisheries etc.
- (c) The Indian Coast Guard has been designated as the Central Coordinating Agency for matters related to Marine Oil Pollution. For combating oil spill, the ICG is nodal agency in Maritime zones of India except for areas covered under ports limits. The Ministry of Shipping  is  mandatedto  take  steps  for  prevention&  control  of  pollution  arising  from ships, shipwrecks, abandoned ships and combating oil spills in port limits, within 500 metres of off-shore exploration& production platforms, coastal refineries and associated facilities. A National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOS-DCP) is prepared for responding  to  Oil  Spill  accidents.  The  NOS-DCP  is  a  comprehensive  tool,  which provides  framework  of  co-ordination  of  integrated  response  by  various  governmental departments  and  agencies  to  protect  the  environment  from  the  deleterious  effects  of pollution by oil spillage. NOS-DCP  is revised periodically to reflect current

| Location &Date of incident                                | Quantity                           | Reason of Spill                                               |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| Off Kamarajar Port, Ennore, Tamilnadu on 28.01.2017       | 196.4 Metric ton                   | Collision between MT Dawn Kanchipuram, and MTBWMaple.         |
| Outer Anchorage Mumbai Harbour on 30.01.2018              | 400 litres of Bunker Oil           | Accidental spillage during bunker transfer on MT JiproNeftis. |
| Kamarajar Port, Ennore, Tamilnadu on 18.10.2018           | 02 Tons of Furnace Fuel            | Accidental spillage due to bursting of fuel line in port      |
| Single Point Mooring of M/s HPCL, Off Vizag on 11.08.2019 | Oil 40-50 Kilo litres of Crude Oil | Accidental snapping of hose                                   |
| Single Point Mooring of M/s HPCL, Off Vizag on 03.10.2019 | 4-5 Kilo litres of Crude Oil       | Rupture of hose used for SPM operations                       |

international  norms  and  best  practices,  key  relevant  national  regulations,  experience gained and inputs received from stakeholders.

- (d) An  oil  spill  penetrating  into  areas  manifested  with  mangroves  and  fishing  grounds adversely  affect  them.  The  Mangroves  undertake  ecosystem  support  functions  like desalination  of  seawater  and  provide  shelter  to  biological  communities' viz. fish,  birds and mammals. The oil slicks get deposited on to the aerial roots and sediment surface of mangrovesduring oil spill, causing death of mangroves. The oil spillage also poses the risk of entering burrows in sediments, killing crabs &worms and immobilise fishes. The fishing  equipment,  nets,  boats,  trawlers  etc.  also  get  contaminated  during  oil  spill incidents. Oil spills result in loss of fishing opportunities causing temporary financial loss to fishermen.
- (e) The  ICG  has  established  Pollution  Response  Team  (PRT)  at  Mumbai,  Chennai,  Port Blair  and  Vadinar  (Gujarat)  to  combat  oil  spill  incidents.  Three  pollution  response vessels are also commissioned at Porbandar, Mumbai and Vizag to augment pollution response efforts. Apart from the above, other Coast Guard ships and aircrafts are also utilized  during  pollution  response  operation,  surveillance  and  monitoring  of  maritime zones  of  India.  The  NOS-DCP  obliges  all  ports,  Oil  handling  agencies  and  Oil installations on-shore to maintain pollution response equipment for Tier-I response (i.e. Oil  Spills  up  to  700  tons).  The  coastal  State  Administration  are  also  required  to  be suitably equipped for undertaking shoreline clean-up in their area of responsibility and conducting regular training  and national level pollution response exercise with active participation of stakeholders viz. Ports, Oil handling agencies.

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