286 vessels pass thru' Shela route

Cargo vessels moving through the Shela river in the Sundarbans. The route was reopened on Wednesday after remaining closed for about a month following a tanker oil spill on December 9. Photo: Collected

Despite an outcry from green activists, shipping has resumed through the Shela river from Wednesday with at least a dozen cargo ships having violated rules on the very first day.

The river was made off limits to shipping after a tanker capsized in the water streaming through the Sundarbans on December 9, spilling 3.58 lakh litres of crude oil into the world's largest mangrove forest and threatening its unique biodiversity.

Nearly a month passed and the government reopened the route, used mainly to ship cargo from Mongla port, for vessel movement with some conditions, including that no oil tanker should use the route and vessels have to enter the around-60km river from both Joymangal and Bogi ends between 6:00am and 11:00am.

However, the shipping ministry did not make any arrangement for monitoring this on the first day, leaving the whole thing at the forest department's disposal.

Some 286 vessels plied through the route on Wednesday and some vessels were prevented from entering the river due to violation of the rules.

"We have sent back 11 vessels to the [Mongla] port and caught another yesterday [Wedesday] as it was plying through the Shela by night,” said Belayet Hossain, range officer of Chandpai Forest range.

The vessel -- MV Shyamali -- was handed over to the Coastguard, he added.

However, the Coastguard released the vessel yesterday afternoon.

Asked why no legal step was taken against it, Mongla Regional Operations Officer Alauddin Nayan of the Coastguard said they could not do anything as they didn't officially have any directive on controlling vessel movement through the Shela.

They received the instructions only in the evening yesterday, he added.

However, only two vessels crossed the Shela route and no ship entered the river after 11:00am, ranger Belayet said.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka University professor of zoology visited the Sundarbans this week and shared his findings with The Daily Star on return.

"Though the spill is no more visible to the eyes, the soil was still smelling of the furnace oil," said Prof M Niamul Naser.

"I have seen swarms of small crabs relocating their nests away from the affected areas,” he said, adding the spill would leave a long-term effect on the food chain of the aquatic creatures there.