Water Pollution

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Maharashtra: Pollution from tarballs needs urgent attention, say  Palghar fisherfolk

Fisherfolk have also alleged that oil from tarballs -- which melt and spread out when exposed to the sun -- is hampering the reproduction of commercially important fish that can be caught in the intertidal areas on the coast.

Though it is common to find them strewn along most of India’s west coast during the monsoon season, the beaches of Palghar district are seeing what locals say is an unprecedented level of pollution this year from tarballs. These are blobs of weathered petroleum mixed with debris and sand, and are presently awash in large quantities across the beaches of Kelwe, Thembi, Vadrai, Shirgaon, Kore, Wadhavan, Dativare, Edvan, Bhaadve and Usarni, among others.

The origin of these tarballs, which have been showing up on shores between Gujarat and Karnataka for decades, is still ambiguous. A 2013 paper by the National Institute of Oceanography had linked tarballs found in south Gujarat to offshore drilling rigs in Bombay High. Bunker oil and ballast water discharged into the open sea, for example, can also lead to the formation of tar balls, which can be as small as coins or as large as footballs. In other instances they may emanate naturally from seepages in the ocean bed.

However, due to a dearth of publicly available studies, and the lack of any official response plan at both central and state level, fisherfolk and experts can only venture calculated guesses as to where they come from. But these origins are only half the concern.