The huge oil spill in January from MT Dawn Kancheepuram was due to its collision with British flagged ship BW Maple in Ennore on Kamarajar Port’s channel.
In a shocking revelation it was found that the oil sludge removed from the Chennai's shores during the clean-up operations were buried in pits close to the sea in fishing hamlets near Kasimedu, north of the city. (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
The incident loomed as an environmental disaster as the oil and tar balls accumulated along the Chennai shoreline extended up to Muttukadu in the south. (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
Officials had said the removed oil sludge would be dumped inside the Kamarajar Port in Ennore and treated with microbes for a bio-remediation process. (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
When Express visited KVK Kuppam, a fishing hamlet near Kasimedu, at least seven pits were found close to the sea in which the removed oil spill were found buried. (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
On digging a little deep, a person working on contract for Dariya Shipping, the company which owns MT Dawn Kancheepuram said, 'We don’t know who dumped the sludge into the pits.” (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
Seven 20-litre capacity drums were found lying on the shore at a spot just two km from Bharathi Nagar, which is the worst affected place due to the oil spill. (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
Fishermen are worried that dumping of oil sludge would make the entire cleaning process a futile exercise. (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
A group of fishermen from the KVK Kuppam area, led by a local councillor, on Friday had stopped the clean-up operations at Bharathi Nagar, demanding the officials to first clear the dumped oil sludge. (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
No official from the Indian Coast Guard, the nodal agency to clean up the spill, was seen at the spot. Despite repeated calls, senior officials were not reachable for comments. (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
When Express visited the shores along KVK Kuppam, it was full of tar balls and a thick layer of oil on the shore. Noted environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman while hitting out at State pollution control board said that it is a cover-up and not a clean-up. Their intent is just to get the job done. (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
