Oil Spills Becoming Frequent Hazard for Fishermen Near Mumbai

Courtesy of Vaishnavi Mata Matsvyavsay Vividh Karyakari Society. Fisherman in Uran, Maharashtra, skimming oil off the water surface and dumping it in recovery kits on Monday.

MUMBAI-Naushad Qureshi, 26, who belongs to an indigenous fishing community in the Uran region of Maharashtra, felt his eyes burning and feet tingling when he settled into his dinghy Tuesday morning. He was looking for crabs, lobsters and prawns in the Arabian Sea to sell in Mumbai, which is almost 30 miles southwest from his village, Peerwadi.

But Mr. Qureshi returned in an hour with only dead fish in his net. “They were black with oil and floating on the water,” he told his family of six, whom he supports on his daily earnings of $10 to $30. “We can't sell these or eat these. How do I run this house now?”

Men in orange overalls and hard hats have descended onto the Uran shoreline to contain an oil spill that resulted from a pipeline burst when power failed inside the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's Uran plant early on Monday. The spill began at midnight and continued for approximately three hours.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests ordered ONGC on Thursday to shut down the pipeline and explain how the accident occurred.

“The Ministry of Environment and Forests has constituted a team headed by the member secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board Shri J. S. Kamyotra,” said a letter signed by Jayanthi Natrajan, the union Minister for Environment and Forests. “The team will make an immediate site inspection and submit a report by October 14, 2013,” the letter noted. “A show-cause notice is being issued to ONGC to show cause why action should not be taken against them under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.”

The fishermen are all too familiar with this situation. In August 2010, this shoreline was swamped with fish covered in a black slick when two ships, the M.S.C. Chitra and MV Khalijia, spilled more than 800 tons of oil into the Arabian Sea. In January 2011, another burst in the ONGC's Mumbai-Uran trunk oil pipeline led to a spill that spread over four square kilometers. Six months later, a ship carrying 60,000 metric tons of coal and 50 tons of oil sank off the Mumbai coast and washed up tar balls to this shore.

“In 2010 and 2011, we couldn't go fishing for up to six to eight months,” said Martand Nakhwa, the chairman of a local fishermen's union. “This time it will be even longer because the spill is right near the coastline.”

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board estimated the latest spill to be a few thousand liters, but it would be enough to force the local fishing industry out of work again, Mr. Nakhwa said. “There will be no fish on this coast because of the oil spill for more than a year,” he said.

Deepak Apte, a marine ecologist and chief operator officer of the Bombay Natural History Society, said the traditional fisheries will be affected for five to six months at the least. “It takes that much time for the flora to come back,” he said. “And since this is a mangrove region, wherever there is oil, regeneration will be slowed down.”

ONGC's spokesman, S. K. Pathak, described the spill as “very small.”

“It is only a few hundred liters and we have almost finished containing it,” he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “Because the power in the plant failed, the pumping capacity decreased and caused a rupture in the supplement pipe. We have done everything to mitigate the damage.”

Y. B. Sontakke, regional officer of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board's Navi Mumbai unit, said water and soil samples from Uran had been sent for examination. The results are expected in a week. If the oil managed to seep into the sand, the ecological damage could be higher as soil regeneration would be slowed down.

Mr. Sontakke, who supervised the cleanup in the 2010 and 2011 spills, said the latest spill could be more than the initial estimation of a few thousand liters. “That's only one-tenth of a water tanker. But the damage to marine life is phenomenal,” he said.

In the neighboring fishing village of Karanja, one of the several that dot the Uran coast, Mr. Nakhwa, whose union represents nine villages, has begun mobilizing fellow fishermen to demand compensation from the ONGC and the state fisheries department.

On Tuesday, Mr. Nakhwa was grumbling that the surveyors from the fisheries department had come during high tide, when the damage wouldn't be as apparent. “They don't even know the A.B.C.D. of fishing,” he said.

He was preparing a list of claims from fishing households across the six-mile Uran coastline: oily and obsolete fishing nets, lost daily income of between $10 and $30 and damage to fishing boats.

“But how can anyone compensate a lost livelihood?” Mr. Nakhwa asked, sitting at his office desk beside a giant fish tank. “Anyway, this is all talk. Let's see if they part with even a rupee.”

After Mr. Nakhwa visited the Uran beach, he came back with a migraine and burning eyes. “This is becoming a pattern. A spill happens, they say it has been contained. But ask us how long we pay the price,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mr. Nakhwa and other fishermen had gathered near the ONGC plant to chart a plan of action. As the workers in hard hats inspected rocks on the shoreline, the fishermen talked about making an appointment with the ONGC chairman, filing a petition to the Uran revenue administrative officer and sharing information about odd jobs.

“Last time a spill happened, I worked as a laborer for one month and was out of work for more than four. We didn't have food to eat,” Mr. Nakhwa said.

During the previous oil spills, Mr. Nakhwa said, the fisherman did not lobby for compensation. “We didn't know who to go to and there was not too much unity back then. This time, we have got together and will demand our rights,” he said.

Manoj Gharat, a fisherman from Peerwadi, said he noticed the spill when he reached the beach on his morning jog and took photos on his cellphone to gather evidence. “I knew ONGC would try to play this down because they are worried about their reputation. They have money to build more plants but not fix a pipeline that keeps dumping oil in the sea,” he said. “The only people who lose out in every situation are the poor.”

Mr. Pathak from ONGC said the company would consider compensation claims when they are made. “The oil spill was extremely minor, but we will consider giving compensation as and when we receive a claim,” he said.

In the meantime, Mr. Qureshi is now looking for work as a laborer, though he appears to be mostly legs and shoulder blades. After the 2010 spill, when he realized he couldn't afford to replace his dinghy with a motor trawler that would take him further into the sea, he started a tea stall from his house. It didn't do very well, but the local fish market was empty for weeks.

“There is no help. This is our problem, as always,” he said.

Mansi Choksi is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist.