Alleging that a recent oil spill in Hooghly river following a collision between two cargo ships had caused harm to marine life and biodiversity, an environmentalist today moved a PIL before the Calcutta High Court, seeking long term measures to mitigate such incidents.
Petitioner, Subhas Dutta, alleged before a division bench comprising Justice P C Ghose and Justice Sukla Kabir (Sinha) that oil spilled from the damaged ships caused damage to marine life.
Mr. Dutta claimed that the maximum damage would be to the prized ‘Hilsa’ fish, which enters the river from Bay of Bengal to procreate.
He claimed that because of tides, river water five km upstream and five km downstream had been affected and said that proper compensation be given to those affected, like fishermen, along with restoration of biodiversity.
Two cargo ships - Tiger Spring and Green Valley had collided on November 23 at Geonkhali at the confluence of the Hooghly and Rupnarayan rivers, while being piloted to and from Kolkata Port, leading to damage to both.
While Tiger Spring was towed away, Green Valley remained stranded there.
The bench directed Mr. Dutta to contact concerned authorities for making a damage assessment and asked him to file a report by December 22 on what long term measures could be taken in the event of such an accident.
