Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
The silence of the night outside the Emergency Medicine department of A.J. Hospital and Research Centre in Karnataka’s coastal city of Mangaluru on June 9 was shattered by the siren-blaring ambulances that came rushing in. Caregivers at the hospital, along with a couple of Navy staff, rushed near the vehicles to pull out patients, some of them in critical condition.
The six patients were among the 18 crew members who were rescued from M.V. Wan Hai 503, a 27-metre-long Singapore-flagged cargo ship that caught fire nearly 44 nautical miles off the Azhikkal coast in Kannur, Kerala, that morning. The ship had 22 crew members and four of them, two from Taiwan, one from Indonesia, and one from Myanmar, were reported missing.
A joint team of the Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy engaged in mid-sea rescue operations. The vessel had departed from Colombo in Sri Lanka on June 7 and was supposed to reach Mumbai on June 10. An explosion in one of the containers is reported to have led to the fire, which triggered an unprecedented crisis mid-sea, as plumes of smoke soon swirled up in the air.
This handout photograph taken and released on June 10 by the Indian Coast Guard shows smoke billowing from the Singapore-flagged container ship MV Wan Hai 503 that caught fire nearly 44 nautical miles off the Azhikkal coast in Kerala.
| Photo Credit:
Indian Coast Guard/ AFP
The disaster set off alarm bells in Kerala, as the incident came just weeks after MSC Elsa 3, the Liberia-flagged container ship, sank off the Kochi coast on May 25. While the authorities were grappling with the impact of this incident on the marine and coastal environment, another tragedy has brought forth more serious questions about maritime safety and the potential risks such accidents pose to humans as well as the marine ecosystem.
The cargo manifest of M.V. Wan Hai 503 shows the ship had 1,754 containers onboard, of which 143 contained hazardous substances. The contents included substances classified by the International Maritime Organisation as dangerous goods under its Class 3 (flammable liquids), Class 4.1 (flammable solids), Class 4.2 (substances liable to spontaneous combustion), Class 4.3 (substances that, when in contact with water, emit flammable gases), Class 6.1 (toxic substances), Class 8 (corrosive substances), and Class 9 (Miscellaneous Dangerous Substances and Articles) cargoes. The falling of some of the containers into the sea after the explosion and the listing of the vessel have raised health concerns.
C. Anulekshmi, senior scientist and head, Kozhikode regional station, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), says the short-term impact of chemicals or debris spilling over into the sea includes immediate harm to marine life, causing death of organisms, and reduced water quality.
“These effects can range from direct toxicity to organisms, habitat destruction, and disruption of ecosystems. There could be mixing of water in these areas by tides, water current, and wind. There are chances of dilution of the chemicals in water. The immediate effect will be on the surrounding organisms of the ship,” she says.
The chemicals can directly poison sedentary and benthic marine organisms as they can accumulate the hazardous materials in their body. The organisms in the neritic zone, a shallow, sun-lit region of the ocean above the continental shelf, can move away from the location to a safer place. All of these depend on the quantity of chemicals spilt, she says.
“If the hazardous chemicals are spilt into the sea, they may immediately affect planktons in the surrounding places, which may further impact all organisms in that area. These basic parts of the food chain will not be available to marine organisms and will affect the food chain. If there is any possibility of an oil spill and discharge of other pollutants, it can devastate habitats around the area by preventing the mixing of oxygen in the waters. However, the ocean is very vast, dynamic, and resilient,” Anulekshmi says.
Injured crew members of fire struck Singapore-flagged container ship MV Wan Hai 503 being shifted to a hospital in Mangaluru on June 9 night.
| Photo Credit:
Indian Coast Guard
Rajeev S. Menon, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Calicut, says that most of the dangerous goods on the ship are widely used industrial feedstock chemicals for the production of common polymers, resins, pesticides, and other advanced fine chemicals.
The cargo manifest shows the presence of nitrocellulose with alcohol. “Mixing and dispersion of nitrocellulose in seawater will prevent explosions, and this is probably the most desirable outcome to hope for, as it is a non-toxic substance. Chemicals such as chloroaniline, 1,2,3-trichlorobenzene, naphthalene, benzophenone, and maleic anhydride are hazardous chemicals that are insoluble and will persist in the marine environment for a longer duration,” he says.
Hydrobromic acid and phosphoric acids, which are highly corrosive acids, are soluble in water and will dissipate in seawater rather quickly. On mixing, they will cause a localised, short-lived dip in the pH (measuring its acidity or alkalinity) of the seawater, which could be detrimental to aquatic life.
He says that a direct reading of the enlisted hazards of these chemicals may be slightly misleading as their mixing with a large volume of seawater will significantly reduce and dissipate some of the dangers.
Meanwhile, faced with recurrence of such incidents and the ensuing threat of large-scale pollution, the Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and agencies such as the Mercantile Marine department (MMD) are in the process of readying an action plan to enhance India’s maritime framework and prevent/lessen the impact of such incidents, according to highly-placed sources.
The sources say that the two back-to-back incidents off the Kerala coast have laid bare critical vulnerabilities in India’s maritime regulatory architecture. Complex ownership issues, threat from hazardous cargo, and delayed emergency response in the wake of the sinking have been a wake-up call for stakeholders.
“The proposed action plan draws on the key lessons from the recent incidents to outline a comprehensive set of steps, including those aimed at strengthening maritime safety, environmental protection, and institutional readiness,” MMD officials say.
They include upgrading of the port infrastructure and responsibilities and ensuring availability of towing infrastructure, and improving efficiency in distress response. To cater to the increasing number of ships, India must expand its sanctioned strength of Port State Control Officers, which is now encountering a 40% vacancy rate. There is also a need to equip them with advanced digital inspection tools, say MMD sources.
Trade union leaders in the fisheries sector are worried about the impact of the accidents on the livelihood options of the fishers. The recurring accidents, they fear, could hit the fishers hard.
Representatives of trade unions in the fisheries sector say there is a need to improve inspections at ports, including at the newly inaugurated one at Vizhinjam.
Charles George, president, Kerala Matsyathozhilali Aikya Vedi, notes that the sinking of the Liberia-flagged MSC Elsa 3 could have been prevented if a thorough fitness inspection had been done at Vizhinjam to ensure ballast-water management.
“There has been a delay of over a fortnight in registering a case against the vessel’s owner firm. Why are such vessels that are over 25 years old being permitted to operate to ports in India with hazardous cargo,” he wonders.
Officials in the Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, however, say that older vessels need not always be unfit for use, especially if they have been given a safety certificate by classification societies.
“Efforts are on to usher in reforms in the sector. While June 13 has been set as the deadline to complete the oil-recovery process from the vessel that sank off the Alappuzha coast, July 4 is the target to demobilise the ongoing multi-agency response and salvage efforts that are being led by the Directorate General of Shipping,” they say.
News about the possible contamination in marine organisms, including fish, following the accident has forced a few people in Kerala to abandon their staple diet and choose meat. The shift in dietary practice has hit fish vendors like Sreedevi Lateesh, who used to commute daily with fish from her home in Vaikom to Kochi by bus.
“Despite financial difficulties, I had to take a break from selling fish for over a week due to a fall in demand for fish from households,” she says, adding that demand for fish is yet to pick up.
Meanwhile, CMFRI officials are collecting water and sediment samples from the coastal areas of Kannur, Kozhikode, and Malappuram and are continuously monitoring the fishery around there.
A senior official says only small fishing vessels are operating in these areas due to the ongoing monsoon trawl ban. “So far, there are no reports of dead fish on the coast or in the fishing locations. At present, the fish available in the markets are coming mainly from the coastal areas of Kerala and Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. There may not be any serious concern about consuming fish now,” the official adds.
Five Coast Guard ships, two Dornier aircraft, and one helicopter are engaged in the rescue mission. The primary focus is to restrict the movement of the ship, which is adrift. The vessel will be towed to a safer location to avert a potential ecological disaster, according to the central agencies involved in the mission.
The recurring marine accidents have called for a comprehensive study on ship accidents and the safety and precautionary measures to be adopted, as Kerala’s sea routes are getting busy following the commissioning of the Vizhinjam international port.
(with inputs from John L. Paul in Kochi)
Published – June 12, 2025 08:41 pm IST
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.