On December 3-4, Cyclone Michaung, which lingered 100 km off the coast of Chennai for about 16 hours, brought heavy rainfall to the city. It forced the Tamil Nadu government to not only deal with the problem of heavy flooding, but also turn its attention to the wetlands of the heavily industrialised Ennore-Manali region in the northern part of the city where oil had spilled over from the premises of a public sector refinery.
Even as oil from the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) refinery flooded houses and entered the Buckingham Canal and the Kosasthalaiyar river, which empties into the Bay of Bengal, at Ennore, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board underplayed the extent of the ecological disaster. Since the spill occurred in inland waters, the Indian Coast Guard could confirm that the oil had entered the sea only through an aerial assessment.
The State government began to act only eight days after the spillage and after it was nudged by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The government’s 20-member oil spill crisis management committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, inspected the mouth of the river, or Ennore Creek, and directed the CPCL to compensate for the damages caused to the environment and the fisher folk, and ramp up remediation.
