At 11 o’clock on Wednesday morning, water driven by high tide has just started entering a canal near Joymonir Gol, the last human settlement before the Sundarbans start.
Unless one knows, there is no reason to believe that what is coming into the canal is water, because it is black and has a thick layer of concentrated oil on top. Even the soil on the banks of the canal have turned black.
Moving a little further towards the forest, a strange line can be seen on the tree trunks some five to six feet above ground. The line stretches as far as eyes can see. Everything below that line appears pitch black.
Looking at the scene with disbelief, local resident Rahmat Ali said: “After the vessel sank in the river, everything here including river, canal and the forest is overwhelmed by oil.”
The discoloured vegetation and the soil was still visible because the high tide was yet to take full effect.
The trawler carrying the Dhaka Tribune correspondent was cutting through the black water and dead moss of the Sela River and heading towards the place where the oil tanker, carrying over 350,000 litres of oil, sank on early Tuesday morning. A little boy is seen trying to extract oil from the water.
Very little green is visible on the riverbanks. The breathing roots of the mangrove trees on the riverbanks have turned pale and the thickets hidden under a thick black sheet.
Some 5km down the Sela River, this correspondent finally sees the vessel sinking heads down, but a part of the rear is visible above water. The owner company has tried to keep the vessel afloat by towing it with two other vessels.
Waliullah, supervisor of the damaged vessel, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have been trying to pull the vessel up. But until now [12pm Wednesday], no salvage ship has arrived...There are six chambers inside the tanker. But we do not know whether all the oil have spilled or there is still some left inside...I think all the oil have spilled into the river.”
There was a navy ship in the area. Several officials from the Forest Department, Mongla port authority and the Bangladesh Internal Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) were inspecting the situation.
BIWTA Deputy Director Md Ashraf Hossain says: “Salvage vessels Nirveek and Prottoi are coming from Barisal and Narayanganj respectively. But we do not know when they will arrive.”
Asked how far the oil has spread, Amir Hossain Chowdhury, forest official of the Sundarbans East Zone, says: “Oil has gone past the Sela and reached the Poshur River. Through the adjacent canals, it has also reached the deep forest... The oil spill is becoming visible whenever water recedes with the low tide.”
Southern Star 7’s shipmaster Mokhlesur Rahman went missing when the tanker sank. Navy’s divers are still looking for him.
Md Farukul Islam, chief hydrographer of the Mongla port authority, says: “This is not part of our channel. As far as we know, this place is not very deep. Rescuing the sinking vessel will be possible.”
After having spent a couple of hours at the scene of the capsize, when the trawler was heading back, everything that appeared black and dead was now under several feet of water brought in by the high tide.
Large vessels started using the Poshur-Sela-Boleshwar channel, known as a sanctuary of six different types of dolphins and several kinds of crocodiles and fish, after the Mongla-Rampal-Ghosiakhali route became unusable in 2011 because of excessive siltation.
The Forest Department has always opposed the plying of heavy vessels on this route, fearing major disasters such as this. Moreover, several other government bodies have also recommended that this route be blocked. But none of those have ever been heeded.
In a desperate attempt, the Forest Department some time ago announced that no vessel would be allowed to ply these waters at night. They would have to anchor in the local jetty for the night. Even that instruction has never been followed.
Venting anger, Abul Kalam Azad, a local forest officer, said: “We have tried to enforce the prohibition several times. But people involved with this transport business are very powerful. Such an accident was inevitable.”
The Dhaka Tribune has learned that the Southern Star 7 was actually a sand cargo which was later modified into an oil tanker. Even Ameer Hossain Farid, owner of the tanker, admitted that.
This correspondent contacted an official of the Khulna oil depot of the Padma Oil Company from where the tanker was bringing the oil.
“We gave permission to convert and remodel sand cargoes into oil tankers for transporting fuel to the power station [in Gopalganj],” said Anwar Hossain, manager of the depot.