90 per cent of oil slick cleared, says Panneerselvam

The Chief Minister said that over 5,700 persons were deployed from several state and Central government departments, Port authorities, fishermen and volunteers over the last five days to clear the spill, which had gathered near the coast of Ramakrishna Nagar Beach. 

The Marina and Elliot’s Beaches, which saw the oil spill leave behind tar balls on the shore, have been cleaned. “Within a day or two, the remaining sludge on the rocks will be cleaned under the supervision of experts,” the Chief Minister added. Speaking to the fishermen here, Panneerselvam assured them that the government would attend to the necessary formalities to get proper compensation from the shipping companies. 

“We have appraised the Centre about the extent of the damage caused by the slick. The collaboration between the Centre and state agencies in the hour of crisis has been satisfactory,” he added. Following his visit, a consultation meeting was held at the Secretariat, which was attended by senior government officials. Meanwhile, bioremediation of around 150 tonnes of sludge is underway, supervised by experts from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

One for the Olive Ridleys 

Turtle conservationists said that the garbage, in addition to the oil spill, which had reached Chennai shores, will spell doom for the nesting season this year. A beach cleanup was organised over the weekend, to clear the garbage accumulated on the stretch between Besant Nagar Beach and Broken Bridge, which has been a key nesting site for the Olive Ridley sea turtles. Akila Balu, a coordinator of Student’s Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN), said that Olive Ridley turtles like to nest near estuaries, which are unfortunately polluted. 

“In addition to the garbage, the oil spill had reached the Adyar estuary last week, which was a sorry sight. Two of our volunteers didn’t realise there was an oil slick and took off their shoes. They couldn’t get off the oil stuck on them for almost an entire day,” she said. 

While the oil spill is dangerous to the marine environment, Akila pointed out that it is difficult to ascertain if the turtle deaths are due to the spill. The oil spill will affect the dolphins and other sea creatures. During our turtle walks, we have seen many crabs covered in oil,” she stated. Peter Van Geit, Founder of Chennai Trekking Club (CTC), said, “Oil spill or not – the garbage is always there. The Olive Ridley sea turtles are indigenous to the East Coast of Chennai. We should ensure they don’t go extinct because of garbage.” 

The weekend clean-up, aimed towards tackling the garbage on the beach, saw more than a hundred volunteers on Saturday, while a core group of enthusiasts toiled on Sunday too. “We are cleaning up the garbage, not the tar balls from the oil spill. We collected one tonne of garbage on Saturday alone,” he said.