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Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- General
- Irish Examiner
What are nurdles and why are they polluting our oceans?
When a Liberian-flagged container ship, the MSC Elsa 3, capsized and sank 13 miles off the coast of Kerala, in India, on May 25, a state-wide disaster was quickly declared. A long oil slick from the 184-metre vessel, which was carrying hazardous cargo, was partially tackled by aircraft-borne dispersants, while a salvage operation sealed tanks to prevent leaks. But almost three months later, a more insidious and persistent environmental catastrophe is continuing along the ecologically fragile coast of the Arabian Sea. Among the 643 containers onboard were 71,500 sacks of tiny plastic pellets known as 'nurdles'. By July, only 7,920 were reportedly recovered. The wreck of the MSC Elsa 3, which sank about 14 nautical miles off Kerala with 77,000 sacks of nurdles onboard. Photograph: Indian Ministry of Defence Millions of these plastic balls have continued to wash ashore with the fierce monsoon storm surges that demolished a stretch of palm-fringed beach in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala's capital, in June. They lie scattered by the sea-facing Catholic church at Vettukadu and in tide lines on the beach, where giant jute bags of them, gathered by volunteers, await collection. Lightweight, buoyant and almost impossible to recover, they will circulate in moving sand and ocean currents for years, experts say. 'The nurdles haven't just polluted the sea — they've disrupted our entire way of life,' says Ajith Shanghumukham, a fish worker in the town. A fishing ban, imposed after the spill by local authorities in four Kerala districts, has since been lifted but fears over contamination have hit fishing communities already struggling with declining fish populations and the changing climate's intensifying storms. 'Very few people now venture out to sea because the local markets simply aren't buying fish,' says Shanghumukham. Those who do report nets full of nurdles and declining catches. 'People continue to worry about contamination,' Shanghumukham says. While 100,000 fishing families received compensation of 1,000 rupees (€9.78) from the state, this represented less than a week's income for most. 'The crisis has plunged many families into poverty,' he says. Nurdles, a colloquial term for the plastic pellets, are the raw material used for nearly all plastic products. Lentil-sized, at between 1-5mm, and thus potentially classifying as microplastics, or fragments smaller than 5mm, they can be devastating to wildlife, especially fish, shrimps and seabirds that mistake them for food. They also act as 'toxic sponges' attracting so-called forever chemicals such as PCBs and PFAs in seawater on to their surfaces, and also carry harmful bacteria such as E coli. Tiny bits of plastic, known as microplastics, are becoming a massive aquatic problem 'When ingested by marine life, these pellets introduce a cocktail of toxins directly into the food web,' says Joseph Vijayan, an environmental researcher from Thiruvananthapuram. 'Toxins can accumulate in individual animals and increase in concentration up the food chain, ultimately affecting humans who consume seafood.' Microplastics have been found in human blood, brains, breast milk, placentas, semen and bone marrow. Their full impact on human health is unclear, but they have been linked to strokes and heart attacks. The spill's location and timing could not have been worse, Vijayan says. Nearly half of India's seafish are landed in the Malabar upwelling region, where the shipwreck happened. And Kerala's turbulent monsoon season, from June to August, which has hampered clean-up operations, is a time of great marine productivity, when rising nutrient-rich waters bring blooms of plankton, the foundation of the marine food web. Worryingly, following the Keralan spill, there have been reports of nurdles once again washing up on beaches in Sri Lanka, a reminder of the worst recorded plastic pollution spill in history when the X-Press Pearl container ship, carrying chemicals, caught fire and released 1,680 tonnes of nurdles into the sea off Colombo in 2021. The Kerala disaster, the latest in a series of pellet spills, has again exposed huge gaps in accountability, transparency and regulation in the plastics supply chain, environmentalists say. Dharmesh Shah, a Kerala-based plastics campaigner at the Centre for International Environmental Law, says: 'These spills expose the transboundary nature of pellet pollution, affecting countries regardless of their role in plastic production. 'They reveal a chronic lack of enforceable global standards across the supply chain — from production to transport — coupled with inadequate transparency, reporting and accountability.' Sekhar L Kuriakose, of the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority, estimates the clean-up could take up to five years. The state has filed a $1.1bn (£820m) compensation claim against MSC. The container shipping company MSC, which chartered the vessel, along with the owner, have filed a counterclaim, disputing jurisdiction and seeking to limit their liability. But the consequences of nurdle spills are being felt globally. In March, nurdles washed up on Britain's Norfolk coast after a container ship collided with a tanker in the North Sea. In January 2024, millions of pellets washed up on Spain's Galician coast. Communities can wait years for compensation. It took until last month for Sri Lanka's highest court to rule that the X-press Pearl's Singapore-based owners owed $1bn compensation for the 2021 sinking's 'unprecedented devastation to the marine environment' and economic harm. At least 445,000 tonnes of nurdles are estimated to enter the environment annually worldwide; about 59% are terrestrial spills, with the rest at sea. The number of big nurdle spills at sea is increasing, according to Fidra, a Scottish environmental charity. With plastic production expected to triple to more than 1bn tonnes a year by 2060, along with more frequent and intense storms, the threat is expected to grow, with some 2tn nurdles spilling into the environment a year. Yet no international agreements exist on how to package and transport nurdles safely, or even to classify them as hazardous. Over the past week, delegates from more than 170 countries met at the UN's plastic pollution talks in Geneva, in an effort to resolve deep divisions over whether plastic production will be included in a final treaty. Campaigners hope successful talks would allow a global approach to pellet loss, packaging, transportation and legal accountability. Amy Youngman, a lawyer at the Environmental Investigation Agency, says: 'Because of the biodiversity in the area, the Kerala spill is devastating. But coming four years after the X-Pearl Xpress, it was foreseeable.' One problem, she says, is that ships are not required to disclose they are carrying pellets. Another is the failure to recognise harm when spilled. 'They are not seen as hazardous or dangerous material so they are shipped like any other produce,' she says. Human error causes most spills, she says, adding that laws on handling and storing pellets could reduce spills by 95%. A research paper published in June co-authored by Therese Karlsson, a scientific adviser for the International Pollutants Elimination Network, showed that plankton may well have been malformed after exposure to leached chemicals from plastic and burnt plastic debris from the X-Pearl Express. Of 16,000 chemicals in plastic, 4,000 are known to be hazardous. 'But for more than 10,000 of them we don't know the health impacts,' she says. — Guardian
India.com
09-08-2025
- Business
- India.com
End of an Era? Helicopter Tender signals a competitive future beyond HAL
The Indian Ministry of Defence has initiated a critical procurement process for 200 new light helicopters, a move that not only aims to replace its dangerously old fleets but also signals a fundamental shift in its acquisition strategy. By opening the door to global competition for a project mandated to be built in India, the ministry is indicating that the era of relying on a single domestic source, like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), is evolving to meet urgent and large-scale demands. A Requirement Far Beyond 200 Helicopters While the immediate Request for Information (RFI) is for 200 aircraft—120 for the Army's aviation unit and 80 for the Air Force—this is only the beginning. The provided text clarifies that together, the Army and Air Force have a total requirement for more than 450 light helicopters, with the Army alone needing approximately 250. This larger number reframes the entire process. The current tender is not a complete fleet replacement but a significant first step in a much larger re-equipment effort. The urgency is underscored by the state of the current fleet. Of the 246 Cheetah and Chetak helicopters ever built, the Indian Army Aviation Corps now operates about 190, with around 30 currently under maintenance, highlighting the operational strain of keeping these vintage machines airworthy. The Legacy Fleet: 60 Years of Service and Rising Concerns The push for replacement is driven by the extreme age of the current helicopters. The Chetak, based on the French Aérospatiale Alouette-III, entered service in 1962. Its counterpart, the single-engine Cheetah, derived from the French Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama, joined the force in 1976. Having been in service for close to 60 years, calls to retire these assets have grown louder, particularly due to a spate of accidents in recent years, some of which were fatal. Their replacement is a matter of both operational capability and personnel safety. A Modern Mandate with Built-in Flexibility The ministry has laid out clear, demanding requirements for the new aircraft, which must be able to perform a variety of roles day and night: Reconnaissance and surveillance Transporting small teams for special missions Moving supplies internally or via underslung loads Working in tandem with attack helicopters to find and track targets Reflecting the realities of India's operational terrain, the RFI places special emphasis on performance in extreme conditions, from hot deserts to the icy altitudes of the Siachen glacier. It demands specific load-carrying capacities for operations above 16,000 feet. Interestingly, the ministry is not limiting its options, stating it is open to both single-engine and twin-engine models. This is significant, as the forces currently use the single-engine Cheetah and Chetak as well as the twin-engine Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) in these mountainous regions. Critically, the RFI mandates that the helicopters must be built in India, allowing helicopter makers to team up with an Indian company, which could be HAL or another private entity. HAL: The Incumbent Contender Facing New Realities Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is undeniably a primary contender. It began producing the Chetak under license in 1965 and is the developer of the indigenous Light Utility Helicopter (LUH). The Army already has a separate plan to buy 80 LUHs from HAL. However, the very existence of this new, large-scale global RFI points to challenges. The text explicitly notes that deliveries of the LUH are delayed due to technical problems with its autopilot system, despite the helicopter passing high-altitude tests in 2020 and receiving its Initial Operational Clearance in 2021. The combination of the massive total need (450+ helicopters), the existing delays in the domestic LUH project, and the government's decision to launch a competitive global tender suggests a clear conclusion: the reliance on a single-source supplier is diminishing. The government cannot afford to wait for a single production line to meet this vast requirement. This RFI forces the issue, compelling HAL to improve its productivity and resolve technical issues swiftly if it wants to secure a major role in this project, while also opening the door for other Indian companies to partner with global OEMs to establish parallel production lines. The path forward is competition, collaboration, and faster delivery. (Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and a Defence, Aerospace & Geopolitical Analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany. Contact: girishlinganna@ )
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Business Standard
17-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Bharat Forge, Turgis Gaillard sign MoU for manufacturing AAROK MALE UAV
Bharat Forge and France-based Turgis Gaillard have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly offer the AAROK Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to the Indian Ministry of Defence, the Indian company announced on Tuesday. AAROK is classified as a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV. These drones are designed to operate at altitudes between 10,000 and 30,000 feet, with flight endurance ranging from 24 to 48 hours. Domestic production to ensure defence autonomy Bharat Forge, headquartered in Pune, will establish a domestic production line for the AAROK platform. The company stated, 'These production capabilities will help meet the significant needs of the Indian armed forces with local production and ensure complete sovereignty on maintenance and overhaul operations.' Bharat Forge manufactures components and systems across a wide array of sectors including defence, aerospace, automotive, power, oil and gas, construction, mining, rail, and marine. Operational capabilities and tactical role In its filing, Bharat Forge highlighted that the AAROK UAV is capable of conducting extended surveillance missions at high altitudes. 'Flying at high altitude and for long periods, it performs long range surveillance missions. Its electromagnetic sensors and radar enable it to monitor the enemy while remaining stand off from the threats,' the company said. The UAV is integrated with command and control systems and other military platforms, enabling real-time transmission of tactical information. The firm added, 'With a payload of over 1.5 tonnes of weapons fired from a safe distance, AAROK also makes a decisive contribution to supporting multi-domain operations by striking far behind enemy lines, disrupting enemy defences and neutralising their surface-to-air defence systems.' Role in maritime and joint operations Thanks to its endurance of over 24 hours, AAROK can also contribute significantly to maritime domain awareness, including detecting unauthorised activity and monitoring territorial waters. Indian UAV landscape India's current MALE UAV fleet includes Israeli-built Heron drones. The Indian armed forces have also placed orders for the MQ-9B UAVs from General Atomics and are continuing development of the indigenous TAPAS UAV. Bharat Forge's global footprint Bharat Forge operates manufacturing facilities across five countries and provides integrated services that include design, engineering, manufacturing, testing, and validation across multiple industries.
Business Upturn
17-06-2025
- Business
- Business Upturn
Bharat Forge signs MoU with France's Turgis Gaillard to offer AAROK MALE UAV to Indian defence
By Aman Shukla Published on June 17, 2025, 17:51 IST Bharat Forge Ltd., a key player in India's defence manufacturing sector, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with French aerospace company Turgis Gaillard to jointly offer the AAROK UAV platform to the Indian Ministry of Defence. AAROK is a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) class unmanned aerial vehicle designed for surveillance and long-range operational capabilities. Developed by Turgis Gaillard, the UAV is intended to support intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions with extended flight endurance of over 24 hours and the ability to operate at high altitudes. The UAV is equipped with electromagnetic sensors and radar systems for real-time situational awareness while maintaining a stand-off position from potential threats. AAROK integrates with command and control systems, enabling it to relay tactical data and support coordinated military operations. A key feature of AAROK is its ability to carry a payload exceeding 1.5 tonnes, including precision weapons. This capability enables it to support multi-domain operations by striking targets beyond enemy lines, neutralising air defence systems, and disrupting adversary formations from a safe distance. Bharat Forge plans to set up a domestic production line for AAROK, aiming to meet Indian defence procurement requirements through local manufacturing. The move is aligned with India's emphasis on indigenisation and strategic autonomy in defence platforms, covering both manufacturing and lifecycle maintenance. The collaboration marks a step forward in Indo-French defence cooperation, offering a scalable UAV platform tailored to the operational needs of the Indian armed forces. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication . A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication ,content writing and copy writing. Aman is currently working as journalist at
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First Post
03-06-2025
- General
- First Post
India issues NOTAM for large-scale air exercise along Indo-Pak border in Rajasthan for May 7-8
The exercise, set to take place in Rajasthan near the International Border, is part of the IAF's regular operational readiness drills but comes at a time of elevated tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours read more India has issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) for a large-scale Indian Air Force (IAF) exercise scheduled for May 7–8 along the southern section of the Indo-Pakistan border. The exercise, set to take place in Rajasthan near the International Border, is part of the IAF's regular operational readiness drills but comes at a time of elevated tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. According to the NOTAM, the exercise will begin at 3:30 pm on May 7 and conclude at 9:30 p.m. on May 8. During this period, airspace over the designated zone will be restricted to facilitate a range of aerial operations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD An IAF official confirmed that the maneuvers will involve frontline fighter jets including Rafale, Mirage 2000, and Sukhoi-30 aircraft, along with surveillance platforms and support systems. While the Indian Ministry of Defence has not explicitly linked the drill to ongoing geopolitical developments, the timing and location are significant. The region has seen increased strain following a recent cross-border terror attack in Pahalgam, which led both India and Pakistan to impose mutual airspace restrictions. India announced last week that it was closing its airspace to all Pakistani-registered and military aircraft from April 30 to May 23. This move followed Pakistan's earlier decision to bar Indian flights from entering its airspace, intensifying diplomatic and military friction. Tensions are also simmering along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, where ceasefire violations by Pakistani forces have drawn strong retaliatory strikes from the Indian Army. Military sources report that Pakistani troops have withdrawn from several forward posts, a development seen as a sign of eroding confidence. Indian forces have responded with what officials described as 'precision and force,' particularly in hotspots such as Naushera, Sunderbani, and Baramulla. In a parallel move, Pakistan declared a temporary No-Fly Zone over Islamabad and Lahore through May 2, reportedly amid fears of a possible Indian airstrike. The measure reflects growing concern within Pakistan's military establishment as both nations maintain heightened military readiness. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With regional stability under renewed strain, both sides remain on alert. Analysts warn that further provocations or miscalculations could quickly escalate, underscoring the critical need for diplomatic engagement alongside continued vigilance. With inputs from agencies
