PETROCHEMICALS INDUSTRIES affects the coral reef biodiversity in Gulf of Kachchh

The main threats to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Kachchh are from oil, petrochemicals and allied industries. The Gulf area is being aggressively developed as oil importing bases because of its proximity to the oil exporting countries of the Middle East. The coastal oil and refinery facilities, as at present, are: Crude Oil Terminal at Vadinar and the Salaya-Mathura pipeline of Indian Oil Corporation and Relience Petroleum at Moti Khavdi. These two industries targeted to process together 39 million tonnes (MT) of crude oil per annum. Reliance along handled a traffic volume amounting to 19.8 MT in 1999-2000. The planned Vadinar-Bina overland pipeline of Bharat Petroleum and the sub-sea pipeline of Bharat-Oman Petroleum near Narara, the proposed Vadinar-Kandla submarine products pipeline, and the Kandla-Karnal cross country products pipeline are major threat in future. All these are being established in the inner-half of the Gulf. Six single buoy moorings (SBM) will be ultimately permitted to be located in the Gulf. As of 1999, 4 SBMs are in place and the remaining two are under consideration. These are being used to import up to 80 MT yr-1 crude oil per year through the facilities on the coast. The import is targeted to be increased gradually to 100 MT yr-1. During operation each SBM is allowed to release an average of 300 barrels (41 tons) of oil per year to the sea, as estimated by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) of USA in 1978 for all offshore oil terminals in US waters. These figures were for the second generation SBMs. The present fourth generation SBMs has no permission to release any crude oil to the Gulf, although minor oil spills are reported. All these activities will be either close to or inside the MPA, which has been notified to protect and preserve the fragile ecosystem, particularly the live inter-tidal and sub-tidal coral reefs of the Gulf. One moderate or major accidental oil spill at sea or on land will be enough to destroy, almost irreversibly, the fragile coral reefs and their associate lush flora and fauna. It is believed, as of 1999, that several small oil spills have already taken place in the Gulf and have not been reported to any official agency. It seems that it was like a free for all to discharge pollution in the Gulf. Anybody could do anything and could get away with it, and/or created avoidable confusion afterwards. A few oil spills during late 1999 were, however, detected. Being small their ecological damages were insignificant. But their sources could not be identified beyond suspicion. In 1992-93, spilled oil was deposited on mangrove area at Pirotan and oil cake was formed over the surface. Mangroves in area of about 3 ha died and a thick layer of the oil cake over mudflats did not allowed regeneration for quite some times. Layer of oil cakes mixed with sands was recorded on the bets but these were not documented properly. In absence of surveillance and monitoring, these minor spills were not recorded but minor spills occurred undoubtedly in the past It should be borne in mind that, immediately after a spill, oil spreads out on the sea surface at a rate of 3 percent of the prevailing wind speed at 15o to the right of the wind direction in the northern hemisphere (Sen Gupta et al., 1993). Having lower surface tension than seawater oil will spread faster than the flow of water under it. The lighter fraction of oil, carbon numbers less than 12 C, comprising around 40%, will evaporate during the 24 hours immediately after a spill. Photo-oxidation by solar UV radiation will account for a maximum of 1% per day of the total volume spilled. The heavier fraction will be broken down by oil-degradation bacteria, naturally occurring in seawater, the maximum possible rate for which is 2 g.m-2.d-1. A part of the oil will also be oxidized by the dissolved oxygen at the rate of 1mg oil/ 3 mg O2. Barely 1% of the spilled oil may get dispersed, suspended or dissolved in water. All these processes proceed quite fast in warm waters. One can, therefore, optimistically, presume that in warm tropical waters roughly half of the spilled oil will disappear during the first 24 hours after a spill. Of course, this amount will vary with the varying density of oil at its source and the amb! ient temperature of the atmosphere and the sea. After the first 24 hours, owing to the sea state and high temperature, water-in-oil mousse may be formed, due to the prevailing wind which will adsorb onto the surface of any suspended particle to form tar balls. Some of the tar balls may sink to the seabed. The remaining tar balls will ultimately, be washed ashore on nearby beaches. In the Gulf of Kachchh, spilled oil will spread on the surface very fast due to the prevailing strong tidal currents over a large area and will become thinner and thinner at it spreads. Thus, even a spill of 15-20 tons will appear to be a 'huge' spill in satellite imagery. Therefore, the response time to tackle a spill in the Gulf will be limited to a few hours. But the natural decay evaporation, oxidation will be pretty fast. Sinking tar balls will be extremely harmful to the long coral polyps. These are constantly under stress due to siltation and sinking tar balls, if they fall on the polyps, may choke them and may prove to be fetal. Similar fate may befall the polyps if the spill is dispersed by spraying chemical dispersants, which will generate a large number of sinking water-in-oil mousse-like globules. Under the present policy, India is expected to attract greater foreign direct investment in the refinery sector, mostly because of technological progress changing the cost implications. India has now mastered almost all the tricks of the trade of setting up grass-root and other classes of refineries as well as running them profitably. We have perhaps, some of the lowest cost refineries in the world. Consequently India could become a net exporter of petroleum products in the early part of the next century and a swing producer to establish global products market. The fact that the State has geographical advantage for establishing this type of industry is already reflected in the recent pattern of investment. As stated under 'threats' the State will surely be facing increasing environmental stress from the petroleum group of industries.
 Ref. 'The MNP S in the GOK- a comprehensive study of the bio-diversity and management issues' GEER FOUNDATION, Gandhinagar

Salt Industries and their related anthropogenic activities in Marine Protected Area in the Gulf of Kachchh,Gujarat,India

Gujarat contributes about 70% of total salt production of the country. The tree districts around the Gulf, including Rann of kachchh have hundreds of salt manufacturing units, which produce nearly two third of the states salt production. The state government granted lease to 27 salt industries in Jamnagar, but lease for some industries was cancelled, in due course and present a total of 21 salt industries work in the intertidal areas (20 in MPA). Tata Chemicals Ltd has been allotted large non-forest area of 145.42 km2 in inter tidal zone. other 20 producers work in area of 10,325 ha. As per remote sensing data, about 165.7 km2 area of tidal zone in jamnagar is used for salt and disposal of concentrated brine together with its seepage from the saltpans and pipelines of the Tata Chemicals ltd. could pose a threat in the long run. It is estimated that 944 liter of bittern is produced in every one tonne of slat production. These salt industries produce about 2.7 million tonnes of salt annually, discharging about 2550 million liter of bittern. Tata Chemical alone produces 1.8 million tonnes of salt near Poshitra. There is no systematic and scientific work on impact of the salt industries on the coral reef ecosystem in the MPA. But the real fact that salt manufacturers have not taken measures to control and regulate discharge of higher saline water (Brine). Most of them do not have concern to the environment. In June 2001, about of one lakh mangrove trees died completely due to breakage of brine water from the pipe of Tata Chemicals Ltd. near Poshitra. Take care our gulf of Kachchh mangroves and coral reef ecosystem otherwise we loss India first Marine National Park biodiversity.

BIO-RESOURCES AND MAJOR THREATS TO CORAL REEF ECOSYSTEM IN THE GULF OF KACHCHH

SAVE CORAL REEF ECOSYSTEM IN THE GULF OF KACHCHH, INDIA


Gujarat lies on the western side of India and it has longest coastline, which is of about 1650km. Its continental shelf occupies about 165,000sq.km, which is 35% of the Indian continental shelf of 468,000 sq. km

The Exclusive Economic zone is about 200,000sqkm.

The coastline has two indentations, the Gulf of Khambhat and Kachchh and these together, cover around 60% of the coastline of the state.

The Gulf has excellent water quality quite close to the characteristics of a pristine water body. The Gulf has an intricate network of 42 islands with their coral reefs, mangroves, creeks, mudflats and sandy beaches are endowed with a fantastic array of marine life. Out of 42 island 33 islands have coral reefs and 20 islands are fringed with mangroves.

The biodiversity is also very wide which include 103 species of algae, 10 species of mangroves, about 279 species of coastal flora, about 74 species of sponges, 52 species of soft and hard corals, 4 species of sea anemones, 144 species of fishes, 27 species of prawns, 21 species of crabs, 200species of mollusks, 3 species of turtles, 3 species of snakes and 5 species of mammals.

The various ecosystems in the Gulf of Kachchh as well as the surrounding areas acts as a nursery and breeding ground for many of the invertebrates, algae, plankton, etc.


The salt pans surrounding the gulf of Kachchh even provides various birds their nesting area as it is away from public interference. The sandy beaches and scrub vegetation on the coast also provides nesting sites for many coastal birds.

The coastal area, unto 20 km. from the shoreline is 30,022.25sq.km, which is 15.3% of the state. Most of the land area is utilized for cultivation purpose. 25% of area is not available for cultivation. This is where the habitation and natural wealth exists.

The population is about 1718990 as it is desert area it is less inhabitant and hence the density is of about 54persons/sqkm. The coastal area of belt of Jamnagar district has 64% of the total cultivable land in20km zone with the Kachchh district having about 35%. Cotton is the dominant crop in the Kachchh district while agriculture is mainly done of oil seeds.

Rainfall is not a reliable source of water for agriculture and hence the ground water is been continuously extracted which leads to the decrease in the water table level and increase in the salinity level.

Animal husbandry is an important economic activity in the arid and semi-arid areas supporting farm income. All other facilities such as education, health, drinking water, communication, transportation and power are modest in the coastal belt.


Threats to the biodiversity:

The main threats to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Kachchh are from oil, petrochemicals and allied industries. The Gulf area is being aggressively developed as an oil-importing base because of its proximity to the oil exporting countries of the Middle East.

In the southern part of the Gulf of Kachchh is under excessive pressure from industrialization around the coastal area.

The area is gaining increasing importance for the Petrochemical industries and this has impact over the ecosystem of the Gulf of Kachchh, there are mainly two reasons that play important role on the impact over the ecosystem.

There is heavy traffic of ships carrying large quantity of crude oil in the Gulf of Kachchh that disturbs the life of the animals and its ecosystem, secondly, the accidents due to which oil spill occurred also damage the life of many bio-resources existing in the Gulf of Kachchh.
If the oil spills in the Gulf of Kachchh it will spread on the surface very fast due to the prevailing strong tidal currents over a large area and will become thinner and thinner as it spreads. Thus, even a spill of 15-20 tones will appear to be a huge spill in satellite imagery.

Gujarat is second largest industrialized state in India, the industries consist of cement, chemicals, dyes and dye-intermediates, and pharmaceuticals, textiles, pulp and paper industries and most of these industries are present on the coast. The industries existing and proposed along the coast, with their associated urbanization will be releasing their wastewater, in treated or untreated form, to the coastal Gulf.

Though there are various threats to the bio- resources because of overuse or over exploitation of the marine bio-resources, still if various plans for conservation are implemented then there should be some plans or some recommendations, which gives alternate source of livelihood for the people living in the coastal area.

Save gulf of Kachchh coral and mangrove ecosystem