An Indian Navy helicopter performs rescue oper
ations as merchant ship MV Rak sinks in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Mumbai August 4. Navy and coast guard helicopters and ships have rescued the 30-member crew from the sinking ship that was traveling from Indonesia to Gujarat. (AP Photo/India Defense Ministry, HO)
For the last few months walkers on Mumbai’s Juhu Beach have been treated to surreal visions of ships out of water. While they no doubt draw crowds of curious onlookers, the presence of these vagabond vessels has raised questions about environmental safety and coastal security. August 7, 2010, an oil spill from the collision of two ships, one of which bore a Panamanian flag, washed up on Mumbai’s coastline, causing damage to the coastal mangrove belt, contaminating the shore and threatening the livelihood of fisherfolk in the region. One of the vessels bore a Panamanian flag. Ten months later MV Wisdom, bearing a Singapore flag, ran aground at Juhu Beach and became something of a tourist attraction until it was removed many days later. June 30, the unmanned MV Pavit drifted into Mumbai mysteriously and ran aground off Versova. Last week, in the third such incident in three months, the Panamanian cargo vessel MV Rak capsized and sank off the Mumbai coast. Are these stray, unconnected incidents? Or do they point to a failure on the part of the Coast Guard to police our waters effectively? While the threat to marine environment and fisheries industry looms large, one cannot forget that the terrorists who carried out the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai arrived by boat. Or that just last week, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report pointed out vulnerable gaps in India’s coastal security. The question
A crew member is winched onto an Indian Navy rescue helicopter from the sinking merchant ship MV Rak.
Oil spilled by the sinking merchant ship MV Rak smears Mumbai’s Juhu Beach. Coast Guard officials said the ship, which sank August 4, was estimated to be carrying about 325 tons of fuel oil and 56 tons of diesel (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
A man walks with his monkey on the Juhu beach contaminated by oil leaking from MV Rak, a merchant ship that sank off the Arabian Sea August 4. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
On August 1 MV Pavit, an unmanned Panama-flagged cargo vessel, ran aground at Juhu beach. Though there were no reports of oil leaks, defense commentators were alarmed that the ship breached the three-tier coastal security wall and floated into Indian waters undetected. MV Pavit had apparently been abandoned by its crew off the coast of Oman and drifted for nearly 100 days before running aground in Mumbai. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
In June, a 175-meter-long MV Wisdom, which was being tugged to the Alang ship-breaking yard in Gujarat from Colombo, broke away due to rough weather and drifted onto the Mumbai coastline to Juhu beach, where it ran aground. The ship eventually tugged back out to sea. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash
- An Indian Navy helicopter performs rescue operations as merchant ship MV Rak sinks in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Mumbai August 4. Navy and coast guard helicopters and ships have rescued the 30-member crew from the sinking ship that was traveling from Indonesia to Gujarat. (AP Photo/India Defense Ministry, HO)
- M V Rak Carrier, bearing a Panama flag, is a 220-meter (722-feet) long vessel transporting 60,000 tons of coal from Indonesia to India, went down about 22 nautical miles from India's financial and entertainment capital hours after it made an emergency distress call. AFP PHOTO/HO/Ministry of Defense
- A crew member is winched onto an Indian Navy rescue helicopter from the sinking merchant ship MV Rak.
- Oil spilled by the sinking merchant ship MV Rak smears Mumbai’s Juhu Beach. Coast Guard officials said the ship, which sank August 4, was estimated to be carrying about 325 tons of fuel oil and 56 tons of diesel (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
- A man walks with his monkey on the Juhu beach contaminated by oil leaking from MV Rak, a merchant ship that sank off the Arabian Sea August 4. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
- A man displays his hands contaminated by oil leaking from MV Rak. Two Indian coast guard ships were using chemicals to clean up the oil spread over an area of seven nautical miles, said Navy spokesman Captain Manohar Nambiar. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
- Oil from the sinking ship MV Rak has contaminated the coastline of Mumbai at Juhu Beach. Environmentalists are worried that the slick will damage the coastal mangrove belt and affect the livelihoods of fisherfolk in the region. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
- The merchant ship MV Rak, which sank off the Mumbai coast, was carrying 325 tons of oil. Defense officials estimate that oil is leaking out of the sunken vessel at the rate of nearly 2 tons per hour. The slick has spread to 7 nautical miles around the vessel.
- On August 1 MV Pavit, an unmanned Panama-flagged cargo vessel, ran aground at Juhu beach. Though there were no reports of oil leaks, defense commentators were alarmed that the ship breached the three-tier coastal security wall and floated into Indian waters undetected. MV Pavit had apparently been abandoned by its crew off the coast of Oman and drifted for nearly 100 days before running aground in Mumbai. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
