Chennai: More than a week after the Liberia-flagged container vessel MSL ELSA 3 sank off the Kerala coast, releasing plastic nurdles and other pollutants into the Arabian Sea, authorities have begun assessing coastal pollution along Tamil Nadu’s southern shoreline.
The National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has dispatched a team to Kanyakumari to collect seawater and beach sediment samples. The study aims to evaluate the spill’s impact on Tamil Nadu’s marine and coastal ecosystems.
“This will be a recurring survey. Our team began sample collection from Kanyakumari and may extend up to Kudankulam. The findings will help create baseline data to understand if the incident has affected our coast,” said Dr. R.S. Kankara, Director of NCCR.
“The results will supplement the Tamil Nadu government’s ongoing environmental monitoring efforts,” he added.
The study's findings will be analyzed alongside historical data from the National Centre for Coastal Research’s (NCCR) Seawater Quality Monitoring Programme, which tracks physical, chemical, and biological parameters at 50 coastal sites across India, including seven locations along Tamil Nadu’s coastline.
The MSL ELSA 3 sank on May 25, approximately 70 km off the Kerala coast, between Vizhinjam and Kochi.
The vessel was carrying 640 containers, including 13 loaded with hazardous materials such as calcium carbide.
It also had 84.44 tonnes of diesel and 367.1 tonnes of furnace oil on board.
In the aftermath of the incident, plastic nurdles — small plastic pellets used as raw material in manufacturing — began washing ashore along the Kerala coastline.
Marine currents have since carried some of the debris towards the Tamil Nadu coast, raising concerns of a wider environmental impact.
In addition to NCCR’s efforts, the Tuticorin-based NGO Suganthi Devadasan Marine Research Institute (SDMRI) has initiated an independent pollution study, collecting samples from 20 coastal locations, starting at Neerody, a fishing village near Tamil Nadu’s southernmost tip.
Experts, including marine biologists and environmentalists, have voiced concerns about the long-term consequences of nurdle pollution—potentially harming marine life, disrupting food chains, and endangering coastal livelihoods.
Findings from both NCCR and SDMRI are expected to offer vital insights into the spill’s impact and inform future mitigation strategies.
(inputs from IANS)