3 more months to clean Colaba shores: TERI

The level of contamination along the Navy Nagar shore was 3,81,000 milligrams (mg) of oil per kilogram of soil when TERI began the process,and the internationally accepted limit is 1000 milligrams. After doing its weekly sample collections to assess the situation,TERI found that the contamination level at Navy Nagar has come down to 2,50,000 mg per kilogram.

Other affected sites such as Sewri,Elephanta Island and Uran are still being assessed by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) before beginning the clean-up due to the large tracts of mangroves present there. Environmentalists are especially interested in the survival of “indicator species”,which are specific to these particular habitats and will indicate that the surrounding environment is on its way to recovery.

Deepak Apte,Assistant Director,BNHS,says that they will be completing their final raw data sample collection by the end of October and will submit the report on their findings by the mid-November.

The lesson to be learnt is,according to Dr Lal,that the coastal and pollution board regulatory agencies have to come up with emergency plans to handle crises like these. “We should be prepared so that in the future people can react quicker and therefore lessen the eventual damage done to the environment. They should also implement harsher punishment to compel people to be more careful. At the moment,those who caused this environmental disaster seem to be getting off with no real punishment.”