Mysterious bird deaths, an oil spill: Two eco disasters last week that were barely reported

Over the last week, two big environment crises have been unfolding in different parts of India.

In Assam, as many as 26 Greater adjutant storks at last count – a globally endangered bird species – were found dead in a wetland just outside Guwahati. The deaths of these birds were first discovered over January 23 and 24 and the toll has been steadily rising since.

The mass deaths – a significant blow to the population of a species that is already dwindling – should have set alarm bells ringing across the country, but apart from some local biologists and forest staff swinging to action, the incident continues to be a local story.

For close to a decade now, Purnima Burman, a biologist from Aaranyak, an NGO in Guwahati working on environment conservation, has been mobilising village women to protect the adjutant storks in villages of Assam’s Kamrup district – one of the few areas where the species is still found. Burman said she has been fighting a losing battle since the incident occurred. While her team has been busy collecting carcasses and rescuing sick birds, the cause of the deaths are still unknown and news of more carcasses being discovered on the wetlands keeps coming in.

The birds were initially thought to have died after consuming something toxic from a municipal corporation at a dumping site in Deepor Beel, a wetland near Guwahati with a sanctuary housing the species. However, no traces of toxic were found in the birds’ bodies during preliminary investigations. A team of wildlife experts will now have to be roped in to carry out further investigations. The team, however, will need to include international experts and toxicologists from international NGOS. This is not to say that we do not have adequate experts in India – but such incidents need the involvement of people who have worked on similar crises around the world who will carry out round-the-clock investigations.

Disaster down south

The second disaster took place in Chennai. On Saturday, two ships collided near the Kamrajar Port at Ennore, causing an oil spill. For the last three days, officials have been struggling to clear the oil and sludge off the shores (by Monday, it had even reached Chennai’s Marina Beach, about 25 km from the spot of the spill), but with no luck. The spill has left a thick layer of slick along the Chennai coastline and has polluted several beaches in the vicinity. It’s also affected the livelihood of thousands of fishermen in the area who have not been able to go out into the sea since the incident.

The area off the coast of Chennai is rich in biodiversity. According to the Zoological Survey of India, there are 500 species of fish and 270 species of mollusks, while many threatened species such as Olive Ridley turtles and the various kinds of sea snakes frequent these waters.

The oil spill will have long-term consequences on this bio-diversity – but has not received much media attention yet, apart from coverage in regional papers and sporadic reports in the national media. There is no information from the authorities on the extent of the oil spill, how much damage it may have caused already and whether it has been contained.

Not enough said

Both the incidents should have at least featured prominently in the national newspapers, if not made the front page. You may ask, why bother with the national media? Sadly, it is only in the face of media pressure that officials swing into action and the requisite machinery is put in place to deal with a problem of such a scale.

We have seen the results of this in the past.

For instance, in 2005, it was widely reported that no tigers had been spotted for months in the Sariska National Park in Alwar, Rajasthan. The government set up a task force to look into this, and the reserve was repopulated with some tigers. And in 2007-08, in the span of a few months, more than a 100 dead gharials (a crocodilian species) washed ashore in the Chambal river in Madhya Pradesh. Pressure from the media spurred the official machinery into action and experts were roped in from different parts of the world.

Similar attention could help make some headway into the cause of death of the adjutant storks, precious few of which exist today. It is believed that only about 1200 of storks are found worldwide, of which around 800 are in Assam alone.

The oil spill, on the other hand, has the makings of a catastrophe. Four days on, there is little information on the toll it has taken or to what extent the spill has been contained. We need assessments from scientists on the damage to marine life and the impact on the fishing community.

Yes, states are going to polls in February and the month started with the presentation of the Budget, but surely the nation needs to know about the environment catastrophes of our times and what needs to be done to tackle them.

The author is an environment journalist and author of the book Green Wars – Dispatches from a Vanishing World