‘Oil slick partial clean-up will take 2-4 months’

The contaminated soil at Vashi and Sewri has not been remediated,however,due to the delicate nature of the large mangrove population in these areas. Instead,these sites are first being surveyed by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) to properly assess the damage caused to the soil through reviewing the mortality rate of the mangrove seedlings in selected quadrants of the affected regions. “We began this process three weeks ago when the crude oil first reached the shores,” says Swapna Prabhu,one of the botany conservationists and coordinators of the damage-assessment exercise being conducted by the BNHS.

BNHS assistant director Deepak Apte said its preliminary report on the situation would be ready by the end of November. “Without adequate analysing,it is useless to draw conclusions as the raw data that have been coming through in the past three weeks can be misleading.”

Apte said attempting any clean-up operation now could potentially do more harm. “The soil is very soft,and heavy machinery,or even just people walking around,could push the oil down into the soil instead of letting it to be washed away by the sea.”

He said the preliminary report would contain possible solutions to begin restoring the affected regions,but more thorough assessments would be ongoing for up to two years.