The Indian Coast Guard is known as the ‘Sentinels of the Sea’, a maritime force that rescues a life at sea, almost every other day. In addition to maritime search and rescue, the Coast Guard is also tasked with preventing smuggling via the sea route, curbing transnational crime, and combating maritime pollution.
With India being the third largest importer of crude oil, the sixth largest importer of chemicals, and large tanker ships ferrying them to Indian ports, the risk of oil spills and chemical spill disasters at sea, is omnipresent.
In order to test and validate their pollution response strategy, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) works with a host of relevant government and private entities. As part of this, the coast guard inaugurated the 9th edition of the multi-agency National Level Pollution Response Exercise (NATPOLREX) Friday (Nov 24) at Vadinar in the Indian state of Gujarat.
The first day of NATPOLREX involves discussions, presentations, and tabletop exercises. The sea-going of the exercise and the assessment of real-world capabilities will be done on Saturday (Nov 25), off the coast of Vadinar.
The two-day NATPOLREX is happening just a day after the coast guard and related agencies re-validated the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOSDCP) and preparedness.
NOSDCP and preparedness meeting was attended by more than 80 delegates from various ministries of the Indian Government, representatives of Ports and Oil Handling companies. The national capabilities and collective preparedness to respond to any oil spill contingency in the South Asia region (as per the South Asia Co-Operative Environment Programme- SACEP) were reviewed during the meeting. The SACEP covers the coast of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka.
Speaking at the inauguration of NATPOLREX, Director General Rakesh Pal, Chief of the Indian Coast Guard said that the exercise was an opportunity to put theory to practice and assess the performance of the Pollution response teams and the equipment. Speaking about the importance of conducting the exercise in the Gulf of Kutch region in Gujarat, he said that the region was eco-sensitive with 42 islands along the Jamnagar coast.
“These islands form the habitat of 70 species of sponges, 52 species of corals, and 90 species of birds. This region is the hub of three major oil refineries, they handle more than 130 million metric tons of imports and 50 million metric tons of export, annually. There are also nine single point moorings. Almost 70 percent of the crude oil that India imports arrives at this region,” Director General Pal said.
The ICG is responsible for patrolling and safeguarding more than 2 million square kilometres of India’s Exclusive Economic Zone and handles Search and Rescue in a zone that is twice as large. Operating 157 surface assets and 78 air assets, the ICG is also aided by static electronic surveillance sensors placed at various locations.
At present, the Indian Coast Guard operates three Pollution Response Vessels, also known as Pollution Control Vessels – ICGS Samudra Prahari, ICGS Samudra Paheredar, and ICGS Samudra Pavak.
These vessels are fitted with specific equipment to deal with chemical and oil spills at sea. They also carry copious amounts of chemicals that are used for controlling and minimising the impact of oil spills and related disasters.
The ICG Chief said that the Indian Coast Guard is indigenously building two more state-of-the-art Pollution Response Configured Specialized Vessels besides the three existing, to further bolster Pollution Response Capacity.
