Many of you might know that on 9th December (Tuesday) Oil Tanker Southern Star 7, carrying some 3.57 lakh litres of furnace oil, sank in the river at Mrigmari under the East Zone of the Sundarbans after being hit by cargo vessel Total Cargo at 5:00am. It was a tragic accident for Sundarbans UNESCO world heritage site. Now the problem is the Forest Department of Bangladesh and Mongla Port authority lack the logistics to handle the situation. They are totally failing to stop oil from spreading through the river and canal networks of the largest mangrove forest in the world.

The slick spread over a stretch of more than 60km up to Koromjal in the upstream and up to Kachikhali in the downstream. At least 20 canals connected to the Shela River were polluted.

?Mrigamari is a sanctuary for dolphins. It is tough to determine what kind of disaster the accident would bring to the vulnerable Sundarbans.? said Amir Hosssain Chowdhury, divisional forest officer of Chandpai (Eastern range of Sundarbans). Earlier Dr Dilip Kumar Datta , professor of environmental science at Khulna University, said spill of such a huge quantity of oil would take a heavy toll on the mangrove forest and its wildlife.

The aquatic lives and the mangrove plants grown along the shorelines where the thick layer of oil has gathered will be affected by the oil slick severely. Wildlife experts said, fish and other aquatic lives would start dying in a day or two while the mangroves might start dying after a month. The spill will also cause a huge problem on the shorelines of canals and rivers the animals of the mangrove forest drink from. The most horrific thing is that the oil would be in the ecosystem for up to 50 years.

Animals in the forest started to die already. The water hyacinths on the two rivers have turned black. Abu Jafar (a local inhabitant) spotted two animals, a monitor lizard and an otter dead and smeared with oil along the banks of the Shela River yesterday. But later Rubaiyat Mansoor, the Bangladesh coordinator of Wildlife Society, who is at the accident site, said: ?I have already heard from some fishermen that fish started dying at different points.?

Government announced that local people can collect oil from canals and they could sell them. The announcement was made to speed up the removal of furnace oil spilled out. But locals have no proper tools to collect furnace oil. Men, women and pathetically the children are getting direct contact with oil without using any safety gears. This open contact will cause damage to their health for sure.

A small mistake today can destroy Sundarbans. Experts referred not to use chemical for oil to spread out. Because using chemical would cause another damage to the ecosystem. Bangladesh government has not that much interest to save sundarbans. If they do they would stick to the ban on vessel plying across Sundarban. As Sundarbans is the UNESCO world heritage site, international community has some responsibities to save Sundarbans. Our ruler is corrupt sometimes and we are a developing country, however we don?t have the capacity to handle this alarming situation. I don?t feel any shame to admit that. But I am begging you to come forward to save Sundarbans.  It has a great number of natural resources and beautiful ecosystem. It?s helping Bangladesh and the whole environment at any point.

 

Environmentalists have been demanding that government must ensure no vessels ply through Sundarbans. Though it?s illegal for commercial vessels to ply through protected forest, hundreds of vessels have been using the Shela river as an alternative route for the last few years. It?s because of less monitoring for preserving Sundarbans.  I like to call the Tunza Eco Generation Regional Ambassadors to give their valuable suggestion on how we, as a global platform can save Sundarbans for greater good.