Cargo details of sunken ship out amid Kerala high court push for transparency
Thiruvananthapuram: The container ship MSC Elsa 3, which sank off 14.6 nautical miles off Thottappally harbour on May 25, was carrying a mixed consignment, including chemicals and raw materials.
A detailed inventory, accessed by TOI, states that the cargo included 13 containers of calcium carbide, several containers of hydrazine and hydroxylamine, and others holding bleached chemi-thermo, slaked lime, sodium lauryl ether sulphate, fish oil, polymer pellets, newsprint, wood, cashews, and vegetables. Of the 643 containers on board, 70 were empty.
The disclosure, coming 11 days after the vessel sank, came against the backdrop of Kerala high court on Thursday directing the state govt to publicly disclose details concerning the nature of the cargo, its potential environmental impact and the mitigation measures being planned.
A bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji gave the directive on a PIL filed by former MP T N Prathapan, seeking comprehensive compensation and rehabilitation for fishermen and other affected stakeholders.
The court also sought instructions from the state on whether such information is already available on the official website, and if not, expected the govt to publish the available details on the site before the next date of hearing.
According to the inventory, 18 containers held polymers or plastic pellets. Additionally, the ship carried around 90 containers of various types of processed and unprocessed wood, 50 containers of hydrazine and hydroxylamine, eight containers of spinning machinery, around 40 containers of cotton, six containers of "luben", 50 containers of bleached chemi-thermo used in paper manufacturing, 68 containers of quicklime or slaked lime — both harmful to skin and eyes, two containers of sodium lauryl ether sulphate — a key ingredient in soaps, detergents and shampoos and 10 containers of fish body oil or Japan crude fish oil used in omega-3 supplement production.
There were also 10 containers of newsprint and 30 containers of cashews and coconuts.
While calcium carbide is the most hazardous substance among the cargo, other materials also pose a risk of long-term marine pollution. The govt has stated that the calcium carbide has not leaked from the sunken vesse, but millions of plastic pellets have already washed ashore along the coast from Varkala to Vizhinjam, raising concerns about their impact on fish and other marine organisms.
The clean-up effort has been sluggish.
"It's been nearly 10 days since plastic pellets began washing up from the stricken ship. The manual clean-up is progressing slowly. It's disheartening to see workers scooping sand by hand and sieving it using just two small metal sieves at Thumba Beach. At this rate, it will take ages to clear all the pellets," said Robert Panipilla of Friends of Marine Life. "This suggests that disaster management and port authorities are not treating the situation with the seriousness it deserves.
There is also no clarity on how deep the sand needs to be excavated," he said.
Panipilla also urged the govt to formulate a standard operating procedure (SOP) and deploy machinery capable of large-scale sand cleaning as waves have already pushed the pellets deep into the shore. Meanwhile, most of the containers that washed ashore were empty.
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