Not just oil spills, plastic new threat for Coast Guard in keeping seas clean

Union defence secretary Dr Ajay Kumar, citing a recent study, said that nearly 15 million tons of plastic is making its way into the Indian Ocean region, creating massive environmental threats

GOA: Not just oil spills but plastics are emerging as a major environmental hazard in the Indian Ocean and a fresh challenge for the Indian Coast Guard tasked with keeping marine pollution in Indian waters on check, union defence secretary Dr Ajay Kumar said.

The Indian Ocean is one of the fastest growing regions of the world. However, today, it is also one of the most polluted oceans in the world. (File Photo)

“The Indian Ocean is one of the fastest growing regions of the world. However, today, all these activities happening around the Indian Ocean have also made it one of the most polluted oceans in the world. Recent study by the World Bank states that the Indian Ocean region is today the second most polluted region in the world,” Dr Kumar said while speaking at the eighth edition of the National Marine Pollution Exercise currently underway in Goa.

“We are here focused on oil spills, which is so relevant both because this region is increasingly becoming a source of oil exploration as well as also because so much of oil is transiting through this region and I have been told that today, the Indian Coast Guard has graduated to a level that it can handle oil spills of the range of 700 tons and above, which only few countries in the region and in the world are capable of,” he said.

“But I would also like to mention that the response to pollution is also equally large with respect to plastics in the ocean. And according to one study, nearly 15 million tons of plastic is making its way into the Indian Ocean region. Every year today, we have nearly 1.5 trillion pieces of plastics, some of them coagulated into islands, threatening our various ecologically sensitive coral reef regions, which are creating massive environmental threats,” he added.

The defence secretary assured that the government of India was committed to enhancing India’s capacity in pollution handling but called on countries of the region to pull together in this direction.

“We are seized by the enormity of the responsibility and the government has been supporting the Indian Coast Guard in enhancing their marine spill response capabilities. I’m happy to say that we have approved the building up of two more state-of-the-art, very pollution response configured specialised vessels for the Indian coast guard. This would be in addition to the three such vessels which they already have thereby augmenting. The capacity by nearly 67%. I’m also happy to say that these results are going to be totally indigenous different and thereby showcasing India’s ability to manufacture and deliver pollution control vessels for the Indian coast guard and for friendly foreign countries,” he added.

“The littoral states in this region have to come together and walk towards keeping this Indian ocean pollution free, and also that huge resources of the ocean are available to the future generations. So more than the steps we are expecting from our neighbors to get over this pollution, we have to continuously make sure there are a large number of international treaties and agreements, which in my opinion has today been created as part of collective efforts. So that the pollution in this region is reduced, all of us have to collectively,” he added.

The eighth edition of the National pollution Exercises will take place off Goa across April 19-20 involving 19 participating countries while a further 30 countries are taking part as observers. The Coast Guard is the premier agency tasked with tackling marine pollution.