Oil spill from 'stupid' collision to be cleared in 2 mths:TERI New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI):

The Energy Resource Institute (TERI) today said the sea surface at the Mumbai coast will be cleared
in two months of all the oil wastage caused by a ''stupid'' collision of two ships.
TERI began the work today for removal of the oil with the use of 'Oil Zappers' -- a cocktail of oil-
eating microbes indigenously developed by the institute -- its Director General and renowned
environmentalist R K Pachauri told PTI here.

"We have sent large quantity of 'Oil Zapper' material for clearing the Mumbai oil spill... You'll start
seeing the effect in about a week's time and in about two months, it will be gone completely,"
Pachauri said in an interview.

Oil Zapper is a cocktail of several microbes that essentially eat up oil. Once they have eaten up the
oil, they just die and leave no residue of any kind.

TERI is likely to use around 15,000 kg of Oil Zappers in the clean-up exercise.
"When the tide is out, we're going to pick up all the oil on the sea bed and also some deposited on
the rocks... We would pile it up on a thick sheet of plastic and leave it there and all of it would die in
no time at all," Pachauri said.

Terming as "stupid" the collision of two Panamanian ships -- MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia 111 -- on
August 7, Pachauri added that TERI has used "the 'Oil Zapper' extensively in oil refineries, fields in
Gujarat, where there are number of oil pipelines."

Asked why he thought the incident to be "stupid," Pachauri said, "What else would you say about a
collision of two ships in today's age and that too right in front of the coast..."
Nonetheless, he said, the incident was very harmful for the environment. The damage would be
mainly in terms of beaches becoming totally unusable and damage to the mangroves is incalculable,
he noted.

Last year, the Indian Oil Corporation and TERI had used the same technology to clean up an oil patch
near Paradip following a similar accident.

As far the mangroves near the Mumbai coast are concerned, Pachauri said, "We are not touching
them because they can be cleaned up with out Oil Zappers and Mumbai's Natural History Society is
handling that part."

Meanwhile, the government is assessing the extent of damage caused due to the oil spill, he
added.Earlier this month, two Panamanian cargo ships MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia-111 had collided
with each other about 10 km off the Mumbai coast.
The accident caused MSC Chitra to run aground and list heavily to one side. The ship had 2,262
tonnes of oil and up to 400 tonnes leaked into the Arabian sea. PTI AMA