The Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal has directed the Directorate-General of Shipping to file a detailed, comprehensive report on the oil spill off Ennore coast that polluted more than 27 km of the city’s coastline and saw more than 200 tonnes of oil sludge being collected.
On Monday, the Bench, comprising Justice P. Jyothimani and expert member P.S. Rao, held a detailed hearing on the case. The Bench has directed the D-G Shipping to go into details such as how much oil was spilt, how much was cleared, what action has been taken so far, what action has been proposed to be taken and the compensation process, among others.
The Bench also sought to know what action will be taken with regard to the oil that might coagulate into oil tar balls at the bottom of the sea. The Bench has posted the case for further hearing on April 26.
Meanwhile, the regional office of the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF & CC) undertook an inspection of the oil spill sites on a direction from the Tribunal. The officials have filed a report on the oil spill and this has been sent to the Centre, MoEF’s senior standing counsel Syed Sherriff told The Hindu.
“The report is currently under examination. We will be filing replied later (at the Tribunal),” he said.
