Tonnes of fish in the state of freshness would have fetched tons of hefty amounts in any International fish market.Now it lay in the storage hatches of Taiwanese trawler MV Yungwu reduced to a state of highly stinking rotten liquidized substance.
A few years of passing time having turned it into a rejected obnoxious material posing a serious environmental threat requiring proper disposal.Earlier range of its repugnant sickening smell remained limited to a few metres from the ship. Slowly and steadily it spread out engulfing a vast perimeter of an area.Finally it became impossible to move within the wide vicinity of this unfortunate boat. Anyone going near this public jetty needed suitable bathing and washing of clothes with a high powered detergent for regaining freshness of body and wardrobe.In fact present prevailing situation had become unendurable.
We applied in local courts for consigning this toxic liquid into the sea water, since it was a “case property”. On finding no viable alternative, since it could soon transform into a public hazard, permission for its disposal was granted, as prayed.
In order to draw out this thick smelly liquid heavy duty pumps from the fire department (being a police unit) were requisitioned. Weekend was selected for this subtle job on account of less official movement in the area.We kept this maneuver a highly confidential affair. My presence became extremely essential for flagging off this “operation cleanup”.
Dark thick foul smelling liquid resembling crude oil started gushing out of the flexible hose pipes.
At broad daylight another inspection was carried out.To our utter dismay we found this liquid had spread out far and wide in the open sea, failing to intermingle but floating on the surface.Waiting another few hours, thorough examination of shore line revealed a lot of dead and dying fish, floating around the shallow coastal waters. All pumping activity was shelved indefinitely.It was highly surprising that no one came to know about this massive environmental hazard, which occurred as a result of our ill fated handiwork.
WAITED for a fortnight, meanwhile devising a fresh strategy to tide over the crisis situation heaped upon us due to berthing of this ill omened vessel.
The only situation that came to our minds was to try pumping of waste liquid in “small tolerable quantities”, so that it did not affect marine life with its lethal dose.
This time keeping our fingers crossed, we pumped out this marine waste for hourly durations.Our changed endeavour proved successful, the toxic liquid “harmlessly” dispersing into the open sea, seemingly causing no fatality of any sea creature.Such secretive exercise continued for a few weeks finally the fuming solution was ridded off the innards of MV Yungwu.
Thereafter began the reverse process of pumping seawater into storage holds of the vessel.This was of short duration since it was just for rinsing out the remaining substance lining its sides and bottom, for flushing out last remains of material emanating foul smell.
Such intriguing issues related to detention of foreign poaching vessels kept us busy, beyond the purview of our unimaginative thoughts.Fresh challenging problems kept on cropping at intermittent intervals from unexpected quarters and unknown directions. We had to move ahead with the eternal flow of the moving time.
This incident transpired just three and a half decades ago yet no one blinked an eyelid at this reprehensible polluting issue? Possibly it had no plausible alternative.
(Author of the story is a former Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police. He handled the above mention case when he was posted at Port Blair, capital of A&N Islands)
