PARADIP: An oil spill from pipelines of Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) has yet again polluted river Kaudia at Atharbanki. A team of officials of Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) visited the spot on Tuesday to study environmental damage following the spill.
Assistant Scientific Officer of Odisha State Pollution Control Board, Pradip Rout, said no death of marine species has been reported till now and oil samples have been collected from the river for tests. Local fishermen saw oil floating on the river and suspecting leakage from IOCL pipeline, they informed the board officials.
An oil spill can be seen in 2 to 3 km radius of the river. If the leak is not plugged, it may result in the death of fishes, they added. The OSPCB officials, however, could not find out the point of leakage.
This is not the first time that oil spill from IOCL has been reported. The four-lane pipelines of IOCL extending up to 15 km from oil berth to Paradip oil refinery pass through isolated places. These pipelines cross a mangrove forest and frequent oil spills have posed a threat to the marine species. As there is no stringent security system in place, miscreants damage the pipelines frequently to steal fuel.
Last year in April, a pipeline of IOCL was cut by miscreants to steal fuel at the CISF Chowk on Nehru Bangla road. A portion of river Kaudia was then polluted due to the oil spill. Eight months prior to that, miscreants had drilled a hole in an IOCL pipeline at Kaudia riverbed to steal fuel and two such incidents had occurred in May 2016.
Following these incidents, thousands of dead fishes were found floating in Kaudia. Nearly six oil theft incidents were reported between 2015 and 2016 besides on June 7, 2015, the miscreants had cut a pipeline and placed a valve to extract fuel. Apart from river Kaudia, fishermen depend on rivers like Bata, Kadua, Santra and Pattakani creeks for their daily catch. They alleged that the oil spill from IOCL pipeline and discharge of effluent by other industries had been leading to heavy pollution of the water bodies.