In the calm waters of Tamil Nadu’s Ennore Creek, a silent catastrophe is unfolding. A thick layer of oil now mars the once-scenic landscape – it can be seen everywhere, on the bottom of fishing boats, on fishing nets, on discarded household items etc. The result of an oil spill caused by the floods in the aftermath of Cyclone Michaung, residents and environmentalists are worried about its long-term impact on the marine ecosystem and the health of the locals.
“There is no use in filling the shore with mud. As you can see, as we dig deeper, we find oil. If this is the situation near the shore, imagine how much oil will be under the water,” says Sivalingam, a 61-year-old fisherman whose family has been living here for decades.
Two weeks after a massive oil spill from Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) on December 4 resulted in a sheet of oil spreading into Buckingham Canal and Ennore Creek, locals say it is jeopardising their only means of income and sparking worries of health hazards.
Fisherman’s ankle covered in oil from the water (Express Photo by Janardhan Koushik)
On Monday, indianexpress.com reached the heart of this unfolding crisis to witness an unsettling sight – there is oil everywhere. To prove their point, fishermen stood near the shore and pressed their feet into the sand. Within seconds, oil submerged their feet, up to the ankles.
“No one wants to eat fish from Ennore. There is a smell of oil on all the fish. Even locals do not want to eat it. Some people ask us to give the fish for a very low price, stock worth Rs 1,000 for Rs 100! So even if we get fish, it goes into the dustbin. We are just sitting here looking at our river god, asking her what we did wrong…thinking what we should do next,” says Prashant, 31, of Kattukuppam.
On Sunday, fishermen at Ennore staged a protest, prompting the government to announce a compensation plan where affected families would get Rs 12,500 and boat owners whose vehicles were damaged would get an additional Rs 10,000. However, the fishermen at Nettukuppam, one of the badly affected areas, say this will barely help them get by for four months.
“There is no livelihood for us here. I am a heart patient; I was meeting my medical expenses with the income I get from fishing. Now, everything is lost. The government is asking people not to buy fish from here. We do not know what compensation we will receive,” Sivalingam adds.
Traces of oil in the water (Express Photo by Janardhan Koushik)
Prashant concurs saying the compensation is not sufficient as even minimal repair work would cost about Rs 10,000. As he picks up a rope lying on the ground to anchor his boat, his hands are filled with traces of oil. Nearly 800 boats in the Kattukuppam and Nettukuppam areas have been damaged due to the oil leak, he says.
Mathi (40), the president of the Nettukuppam Fishermen’s Cooperative Society, says they have now made announcements in their villages asking children, women and elderly to stay away from the shores.
“This area used to be buzzing with so many activities but look at it now. The women in our areas have been told to shut all windows not allowing the toxic air to enter our households. The air is so toxic, even you will experience some difficulty in your throat for the next two days. Over 2,500 people here are suffering. Seeing no viable option for doing any fishing activities at least for a year, we have convinced ourselves to look for other options like working as daily wagers. We also demand the government offer us some jobs to take care of our families,” he adds.
What the authorities say
The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) on December 11 issued a statement saying a technical team had been constituted to ascertain the cause of oil spillage into the environmentally sensitive Ennore Creek area. After inspecting the premises of CPCL and other related industries, the team submitted its report, concluding that the oil spillage from the CPCL refinery into the Buckingham Canal to the Ennore Creek took place in the aftermath of floods due to Cyclone Michaung.
With the state government putting the onus on CPCL for the damage, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on Sunday issued a statement saying that due to unprecedented flooding in Chennai, the water level in Buckingham Canal increased, causing reverse flow, and this appears to have carried some oil, not just from CPCL refinery, but also other industrial units in Manali into Buckingham Canal when the water levels receded.
It further noted that an oil slick has been formed near Ennore Creek and CPCL has taken the lead to remove this oil slick in coordination with the state authorities. “There has been no pipeline leak or leakage from tanks in the refinery, and the refinery is under operation,” the statement added.
A woman involved in the cleaning process at Nettukuppam shows the bottle filled with oil. (Express Photo by Janardhan Koushik)
Listing out the measures of CPCL, the Union government had said that the oil presence in the containment zone is “miniscule”. “CPCL is working on war footing to clean-up and clear the areas in coordination with TNPCB and state authorities and the work is targeted to complete in the next two-three days,” the statement added.
On the other hand, the Coast Guard on Sunday said the oil spill is trapped inside the Ennore Creek area and there is “nil egress”. “The oil spill spread to about 20 square kilometers which was ‘light sheen to dark brown’ in colour and was estimated to be approximately 10 tonnes as per the standard method of spill quantity calculation. No oil spill was found extending into the sea thereafter as the flood water outflow into the sea through Kosasthalaiyar River was less and the oil got trapped inside the creek area which is being responded (to) by the contractors,” PTI quoted a release from the defence ministry as saying.
‘Government had no plan, no equipment’
M Vetriselvan, an advocate with environmental organisation Poovulagin Nanbargal, tells indianexpress.com that this is an “industrial accident”. Fishermen near the creek had spotted the spill on December 4 itself and had alerted the officials but the TNPCB failed to act, he alleges.
“We do not have a separate rule for industrial accidents. For oil spill in waters, there is a national contingency plan and under this, each state has its own contingency plan, barring Tamil Nadu,” says Vetriselvan. “In 2017, our state made a draft and sent it over to the Union government and it is yet to be approved. The contingency plan says if any kind of oil spill happens, the first authority to handle it is the Coast Guard, followed by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and other departments in coordination with the state government,” he adds.
“Here, the Coast Guards and ONGC came very late. The state government neither had a disaster plan nor equipment to handle this immediately. The local fishermen were told that they would be given some amount per day and they were asked to clean the spill without any safety equipment,” Vetriselvan alleges.
CPCL, he says, had expanded its unit for the fourth time some five years ago with Manali already being categorised as a critically polluted area by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The government, he said, should take immediate measures to relocate it. While the government is taking measures to clean up the shores and the water areas, the bigger problem lies in the residential areas where the oil has entered alongside the floodwater, says Vetriselvan.
“The government is asking people not to buy fish from here. We do not know what compensation we will receive,” says Sivalingam, a 61-year-old fisherman (Express Photo by Janardhan Koushik)
“The government has not taken proper measures…this sludge is carcinogenic. The government should completely eradicate this from residential areas otherwise people will have periodical exposure to this, and it will be higher during summer. A baby born in this kind of a situation would grow alongside this exposure, leading to long-term health issues,” he added.
Nanjil Ravi, president of fishermen’s union Anaithu Meenavargal Sangam, says factories around the area are turning water bodies into garbage, making them unfit for humans to live. The CPCL’s alleged decision to leak its waste into the Kosasthalaiyar River has affected villages around it, including Nettukuppam, Thalakuppam, Ennore Kuppam, Mugathuvara Kuppam, Kaatukuppam and Sivanpadai Veethi. The damage also extends to Kasimedu fishing harbour as well as Pattinapakkam.
“The leak happened on December 4 and till now there is no proper solution provided to the residents of this area. The shores are stained with oil. The Kosasthalaiyar river mouth, which had a healthy aquaculture and biodiversity, is now filled with oil and is a muddy mess. How would fish or turtles breed? And this would have a direct impact on the livelihood of the fishermen,” Ravi said.
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Ravi noted that since the oil is spread over a 20 sq km area, the fishermen are forced to go beyond to catch fish. He adds that this causes economic loss and even after all the effort, fishermen are not getting any profit out of it.
“The government should close the companies causing a loss of livelihood to fishermen. The judges of the National Green Tribunal should make a spot visit here; a committee should be formed to regularise the companies here. The latest oil leak will have an impact on the livelihoods of people here for the next 10 years,” he says.
Meanwhile, clean-up continues
Supriya Sahu, the additional chief secretary of the environment, climate change and forest department, noted in a statement on Monday that an exhaustive review of the ongoing oil spillage mitigation work was held at Ennore. The team also undertook a comprehensive assessment of the oil spill impact on the mangroves in the Ennore Creek area, Sahu added.
She noted that specialised cleaning agencies engaged in mitigation works have almost completed the removal of floating oil and have started clearing oil deposits from the shores, boulders and oil-laden debris.
“Beach cleaning work came to a completion in three villages of Nettukuppam, Ennore Kuppam and Mugathuvara Kuppam. Around 700 people, 110 boats, three skimmers, two hydrojets, five gully suckers, one tractor, 11 tippers, five Poclains and seven JCBs continue to work to achieve the object of completion of cleaning operations,” she said.
According to Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), over 12 metric tonnes of garbage were removed from Nettukuppam and Mughathuvara Kuppam on Monday. As per officials, 20 special medical camps have been set up in the Manali and Tiruvottiyur zones to provide treatment to the residents affected due to the oil leak.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd Janardhan Koushik 
Janardhan Koushik is Deputy Copy Editor of indianexpress.com. He is a New Media journalist with over five years of reporting experience in the industry. He has a keen interest in politics, sports, films, and other civic issues.Janardhan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication from SRM Arts and Science College and a PG Diploma in New Media from Asian College of Journalism, one of the top ranked journalism schools in India.He started his career with India Today group as a sub-editor as part of the sports team in 2016. He has also a wide experience as a script-writer having worked for short-films, pilot films as well as a radio jockey cum show producer while contributing for an online Tamil FM.As a multilingual journalist, he actively tracks the latest development in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry utiling his well-established networks to contribute significantly to breaking news stories. He has also worked as a sports analyst for Star Sports. … Read More