Liberian ship sinks off Kerala coast: no oil on state's shores, says Coast Guard

Kochi | The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Tuesday said no oil has made its way to the Kerala shores from the Liberian cargo ship that sank off the state's coast two days ago.

A defence PRO, in a post on the social media platform X, said that efforts were currently underway by the ICG, with the assistance of multiple coast guard assets, to deal with the oil spill caused by the shipwreck.

"The situation regarding the oil spill is currently managed and under close observation by @IndiaCoastGuard. As of 1330 hr today, no oil has made its way to the shores of #Kerala state," the post on X said.

On Monday, there were concerns that the oil spill might reach the Kerala shores as the fuel was drifting at a speed of around three kilometres per hour.

The same day, the ICG said it deployed offshore patrol vessels for monitoring the site and has intensified surveillance and spill mitigation efforts.

Liberian container vessel -- MSC ELSA 3 -- sank 15 nautical miles off the Kochi coast early on Sunday, due to flooding.

It went down with 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide. It was also loaded with 84.44 MT of diesel and 367.1 MT of furnace oil, the Ministry of Defence said on Sunday.

A day later, the ministry, in another statement, said that the Indian Coast Guard's surveillance aircraft detected an "oil slick" at the site, and the ICG launched a "full-scale pollution response operation".

Of the 24 crew members onboard the Liberian vessel, 21 had been rescued by the ICG on Sunday, and the remaining three were later rescued by INS Sujata, which joined the rescue operation launched by the ICG.