Struck by one of the worst disasters in history, the Sundarbans is struggling to catch its breath, with or without the help of people
Bangladesh is no stranger to disasters. The geographical location of our country makes it prone to natural catastrophes and our coastline has been ravaged by many cyclones and hurricanes. However heartbreaking it is to witness villages and lives torn apart by Mother Nature’s fury, it is still acceptable on some level. The thing that is not acceptable is the world’s largest mangrove forest getting polluted with 350,000 litres of furnace oil because of a manmade error.
On December 9, 2014 a trawler which was on its way to deliver oil to a power plant near the Sundarbans was hit by another vessel causing it to sink to the depths of Sela River. Within hours the murky, viscous substance oozed out of the damaged containers, spreading across the river that is home to the rare Irrawaddy and Gangetic dolphins and several other endangered aquatic life. For two days, the oil continued to leak into the water without any intervention. The bleeding hearts of citizens from all over the country watched in despair as the spill expanded; first twenty kilometres, then forty, then eighty. Our country helplessly looked on as fish, unable to breathe, started to surface and birds, wings covered in slick, lost flight and eventually died. Unable to take immediate action government officials called, with limited resources and knowledge, on the locals to scoop up the oil deposited on the banks as best as they could. To give them an incentive Padma Oil declared that they would buy the collected oil off of them. So the locals of the affected villages, mostly fishermen who lost their livelihoods with the disaster, took up the job of manual cleanup without any sort of protective gear whatsoever.
The Sundarbans is the largest delta in the world. Made up of vast saline mudflats and covered with mangrove trees, as well as a diverse population of wildlife, the mighty forest has served as a natural barrier for decades from turbulent costal weather that the region is prone to. Housing three separate sanctuaries, the Sundarbans was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. This is not a surprise considering that the forest is a habitat for over 300 different species of flora and 269 genera of wild animals, including the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger, Masked Finfoot, lndian fishing cat, estuarine crocodiles, otters, and the spotted deer, among others.
Any sort of oil spill into a water body is awfully concerning but one in an ecosystem as delicate as our beautiful forest’s is a downright tragedy. The shorelines have blackened near the affected region. The mangrove trees look as though their roots have been dipped in tar, as if they are dressed to show solidarity. Within the third day the corpse of an Irrawaddy dolphin surfaced along with the bodies of a couple of otters. Pictures of wildlife smeared in oil have become common updates on news and social media sites alike. Since the announcement of Padma Oil’s ‘buy-back’ policy, photos of people covered in the carcinogenic chemicals have made an appearance as well. The oil spill does not only threaten the animal life in the forest; the flora is in grave danger too.
The oil spill occurred at the heart of a dolphin reserve on a route that is said to be illegal. Commercial vessels are banned by law to use a course that runs directly through a heritage site. Ever since the blockage of an alternative way, trawlers and ships have been using this route to transport goods. This is not the only accident to have had occurred on this path. In September 633 metric tonnes of cement and 600 metric tonnes of coal ash was also dumped into the river which inevitably affected the forest ecosystem as well. Although the UN has called for a strict ban of traffic along the affected route, there is talk of opening up the path as soon as the uproar dies down. In fact trawlers and ships have been seen to be on standby, awaiting green signal from the government to be allowed to travel through the very route. As if this is not abusive to the Sundarbans itself, there is also the plan for the Rampal Power Plant to be built north of the region, along with a 50,000 tonne grain silo construction in Joymoni underway already. Again strongly objected to by the public and the UN, this development that is said to bring the country more power is like pouring acid into a wound. The single largest mangrove forest will be subject to heightened human traffic and half a million metric tonnes of liquid and sludge factory waste each year, all of which will affect the fragile ecosystem, not to mention the livelihoods of the locals there, many of whom have been uprooted from their homes in order to make space for the project. With little or no compensation and threats from goons, these dislocated people have lost their homes and will soon lose their jobs as well. Moreover, in order to make the power plant work, a huge amount of water would be required to be desalinated which would also disrupt the balance of the ecosystem.
With threats stacking up one after the other, presently, it is vital that prompt action is taken to cleanup the spillage. Although the Forest Department appointed two hundred day-labourers to scoop up the oil from the river and adjacent canals, it is proving to cause further harm. According ecology experts, the untrained locals are gathering mud from the riverbanks along with the oil, which in turn is causing the soil to lose its fertility thus further harming the ecosystem. In order to tackle this problem it is advised that biodiversity and ecology experts be brought on board to oversee the entire cleanup process. Such experts can not only provide better solutions but also constantly assess the situation after cleanup on a daily basis. This will assist in forming immediate contingencies based on freshly collected data if certain actions and plans fail. This way, the funds too will be better managed and put to use more efficiently. Some specialists are sticking to the notion that a natural recovery cleanup without human intervention is the best way to go about it. More importantly, in order to attain a successful natural recovery, a thorough ban of all commercial vessels and industrial sites throughout the Sundarbans should be implemented.
Lusana Anika Masrur,
Communication Coordinator,
Obhoyaronno- Bangladesh Animal Welfare Foundation
Recent days have been a cacophony of emotions for Obhoyaronno. We celebrated a landmark accomplishment of the High Court ruling in favour of our petition to ban all dog culling and bull/goat/cock fighting throughout Bangladesh. The same week, we bleed in anguish at the country’s joint failure to protect Mother Nature. The oil spill in the Sundarbans has broken the hearts of many and won little sympathy from the authorities.
Claims of little damage being done and manual cleanup efforts helping locals earn more money have been made. But what about entire fishing communities losing the livelihood passed down to them across generations? What about the little girl with her cooking pot, drenched in hazardous black oil, made famous in pictures, when she gets sick from exposure? What about more industrial disasters there in future, if we treat the current one as a trivial matter and fail to introduce safer practices and policies?
Experts have repeatedly criticized the current cleanup efforts, which are causing more harm than good to the ecosystem. The method being applied now, even by labourers of the Forest Department and over enthusiastic but well-intentioned volunteers, disturbs the forest floor, causing oil to mix with soil and contaminate the primary food producers that form the base of the food pyramid. While the thought of apex predators like dolphins and Royal Bengal Tigers being affected horrify us; it is the barely-visible planktons in the soils we should be more alarmed about. Once they are polluted, the impact will travel up the entire food chain and contaminate the entire forest ecosystem -the mangrove ecosystem that has sheltered our vulnerable land and civilization from the treacherous ocean for centuries, like a mother protecting her children. Instead of rushing to the site with limited knowledge and capacity, let us remain vigilant and let experts take control, assisting as necessary. If there is any lesson to be taken from the Rana Plaza tragedy, it is that involved parties must be coordinated better with specialists as well as each other, properly invest in impact/needs assessments and manage funds better to maximize efficiency and results, while enabling transparency throughout.
Let us especially not lose sight of the long-term issues and challenge those who consider the Sundarbans a small price to pay for a better power supply. Let us put pressure to ensure safety mechanisms, ethical standards and environmental compliance – if we are to have industries there at all! Let us take this opportunity to unite and convince authorities to tread carefully into the wilderness and treat it with respect. Obhoyaronno may operate in urban settings with domestic and stray animal populations, but wildlife is as much at the heart of our cause as any other, if not more. Today we mourn and show solidarity with all those affected, humans and non-humans alike. With a heavy heart and silent thoughts we carry on in hope to see light of better days ahead, where our culture values the intrinsic worth of all beings we share this land with.