The Impact Of The Oil Spill On The Environment And People's Attitudes Towards This

Oil and Shipping Industry are two mainstay industries in this postmodern industrial era and in any contemporary economy, the former constitute the fuel and the latter the lifeblood for its growth and development. Keeping that in purview, oil spill has a potential to create a formidable impact both on the economy and the ecosystem. However, the critical question that every nation struggles to answer post an oil spill is ‘who to blame for the misfortune?’ And it becomes even more imperative to find someone to bear the cost of the calamity and its consequences. From measuring the scale of the spill to identifying those who committed the errors, our system responds with immediate concern, nonetheless amidst this chaos they side line the clean-up process, with no one bearing up that responsibility.

In any social society, three primary actors are State, Private Corporate Sector or the Public, and subsequently their role, response and responsibility in these circumstances become vital in determining the script post the occurrence of these spills. And not to mention, on studying the infamous spills across the world, it is becomes easy to identify how all these actors have in themselves developed a screenplay highlighting their individual outlook of the catastrophe.

STATE: ENVIRONMENT VS DEVELOPMENT

The formidable weapon of legitimacy and popular sovereignty becomes instrumental for the validation of State claims and vindications and in this case the ‘State’ is inclusive of the Government and every other body of authority working beneath or independent of it. The insidious development that the 21st Century celebrates fails to perceive its sustainability and longevity. Contemplating the ideal aspects of the Growth neither the government nor the people seem to be actually scaling the multiple ‘costs’ of this development. The promising and enduring monetary flow through the oil and shipping industries has forced the government responsibility to be reduced to mere legislation. The numerous Policies formulated by the National governments across the country has satisfied the mushroom voices, and ephemeral activism, yet it is to remind everyone that hardly has it brought in excellence neither in prevention and preparation nor response and restoration.

In India, the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOS-DCP) was introduced to make the Indian subcontinent, primarily Mumbai, Chennai and Port Blair, prepared to deal with a probable marine Disaster. Coast Guards and Pollution response Team were introduced in these hotspots in the year 1996, the same year NOS-DCP was first promulgated.

PUBLIC: PROACTION VS IGNORANCE

It is necessary that one stands beyond hashtags and filtered profiles, as activism and campaigning are also about consistency, determination and proaction outside the virtual world of Global Social Network.

CASE STUDY: ENNORE OIL SPILL (2017)

January 28th, 2017 is a red letter day in the history of both Indian and Chennai Coast. Kamarajar port, situated in proximity of Ennore town, experienced a misfortunate collision of a loaded and unloaded oil tanker, creating an enormous and devastating spill that affected approximately 25 ports in vicinity and 72 km of coastal line. The sludge was only partially removed leaving several fishing communities to suffer the aftermath. Dawn Kanchipuram, a loaded tanker collided with BW Maple, an inbound empty tanker at approximately four in the morning. Despite the existence of systems including the Indian Coast Guard, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, Chennai Corporation, Chennai Port Authority, and Chennai Fire and Rescue Department, there was no authority to bear the initial cost and responsibility. Apparently there was no clarity regarding the distribution of work and functions.

Either way the il spill continued further aggravating the situation. When in immediate effect they should have attempted to isolate the spill, the experts and strategists were busy focusing on concluding certain figures of the spill. In fact, in the initial days of spill, people were seen literally removing the oil slicks using buckets and bare hands. This certainly raises the need for probing into our definition of development and proclamation of ‘science and technology’ as prime elements of development.

Recent reports published by Oil Spill India (OSI) on the Ennore spill pegs the spill at 251.4 million tonnes and ironically when O. Paneerselvam, the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu visited the site on the third day post the disaster, he claimed that the 90% of the clean-up process has been completed. And it was assumed then that the spill was not major and accounted to no more than 9.9 million tonnes. Paradoxically, in the upcoming days many officials in higher offices of authority highlighted how the state was impromptu to tackle a calamity of that ‘intensity’. Few of their other defences included being technologically ill equipped with the shortage for experts and ‘man-power’. The owners of both the tankers promised a compensation of 141 Crore, with the insurance companies providing a supplementary sum of 135 Crores. Nonetheless, the poor response of the officials and corporates involved compelled the people, especially the affected fishing communities to mobilize among themselves to raise their concerns. They introduced several novel method and techniques including Neer Sathyagraha. However, similar to every other social movement in India, this movement also gradually combined their cause to the already existing movements, thus stealing the lime light of the current cause.