Tiny plastic pellets from sunken ship washed ashore along Kanniyakumari coast
Several bags of tiny plastic pellets (nurdles) from the Liberian container ship, MSC Elsa 3, that sank off the Kochi coast on Sunday were washed ashore in some of the coastal hamlets of western Kanniyakumari district on Wednesday evening.
Sources in Enayam and Vallavilai said a few damaged bags and tiny plastic pellets from the sunken ship were washed ashore at Poovar in Kerala in the morning and similar damaged bags were found along the shoreline of Enayam, Erayumanthurai and a few more coastal villages in Kanniyakumari district in the evening.
'Since the district administration had cautioned the fishermen against handling anything floating in the sea following the accident, the fishermen informed the officials immediately on seeing the unusual materials being washed ashore. They are being carefully removed by the officials,' said Sunil Sabariar of Vallavilai.
District Collector R. Alagumeena, who visited Enayam and a few more villages since Wednesday evening along with the officials from Fisheries and Revenue Departments and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to monitor the removal of the floating objects, said the 'non-hazardous' plastic pellets were collected and removed as per the guidelines shared by the Kerala government with Kanniyakumari district administration on handling the materials from the sunken ship.
'The plastic pellets washed ashore in Enayampuththanthurai, Vallavilai and Eravipuththanthurai were scooped carefully and stored in bags. Since we have received the protocol from the Kerala government on handling these materials, we are carefully following it. We are also in touch with the shipping company, which has promised to send a team of experts from Gujarat for cleaning our coast. They are expected to arrive here on Thursday afternoon. Till then, we are doing the work while following the guidelines,' Ms. Alagumeena said.
Officials said 31 bags of tiny plastic pellets from Enayampuththanthurai and 12 bags from Vallavilai and Eravipuththanthurai were recovered and stored at Munsirai panchayat union office.
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