The forest department has started manual clean up of the oil slick that has spread along at least 80km of Shela river and other channels since Tuesday threateing the delicate ecology and biodiversity of the Sundarbans.
Amir Hossain Chowdhury, Sundarbans north forest department official, said the oil spill in 21 adjacent canals of the Sela is being cleaned up with 200 people on 100 boats. "The operation began around 8am. We will decide on further course of action in the afternoon."
Furnace oil can be found in semi solid chunks in water and hence may be collected from the rivers manually.
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The canals which have been polluted the most are Joymoni, Nilphamari, Badamtola, Andarmanik, Nondatola, Mrigmari, Surjomukhi, Baijua, Laubunia, Commander, Hetalmari, Kewratola, Bosta and Camp.
The operation will continue till 5pm, said Chadpai range Assistant Forest Officer Belayet Hossain.
The tanker, which capsized in the Sela River with 350,000 litres of furnace oil on board on Tuesday, was hauled up on Thursday.
The oil spread along 80 kilometres of the Shela River seriously threatening the ecology and wildlife of the world's largest mangrove forest.
An expert team had sprayed Spark Scent, a powdered substance, to neutralise the oil on Thursday.
However, Divisional Forest Officer of the Sundarbans east zone Amir Hossain Chowdhury contradicted his own statement by once confirming the matter of spraying and later claiming that nothing like that had happened.
Later, Mongla Port Authority Chairman Habibur Rahman said Kandari 10 would start spraying the oil neutraliser after permission from the environment ministry.