Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior is anchored off Alang and
Bhavnagar for the last two days, to bear witness and document toxic
materials aboard ships- for-scrap, which lead to adverse impacts on
the fragile aquatic environment. It
is well known that huge amounts of hazardous substances are
being illegally dumped on the beaches and the sea near the
ship-breaking yards.
"Instead of taking action against criminal companies and
governments that are using our shores as dumping grounds for "toxic
waste" in a clear contempt of the Supreme Court directives, I am
surprised that the Gujarat authorities have
chosen to target Greenpeace. We are an environmental watchdog
group; we have exposed the shocking behaviour of the UK government
and the ship-owner. Clearly there are vested interests at work,
when authorities choose to ignore the
criminal and go after the witnesses" said Mr.
Ananthapadmanabhan, Executive Director, Greenpeace India from
Chennai today.
On November 12, 2003, Rainbow Warrior arrived at Alang on the
first leg of its "Corporate Accountability tour of India" to find
that a UK ship "Genova Bridge" had beached at Alang, laden with
toxic substances like PCBs, Asbestos, waste oil, sludge, TBT etc.
Genova Bridge, (17665 dwt ro/ro; flag-St. Vincent & Grenadines;
owner- V. Ships Commercial, London) was beached on November 9, 2003
even as the British authorities refused to give permission to US
naval ships
(the controversial Ghost fleet) for scrapping on their shores
following environmental concerns raised by public, environmental
organisations and the authorities themselves. A total of eleven
ships has been sold by UK ship owners
for illegal scrap in Asia during 2003.
"Indian authorities should realise that the ship breaking
business cannot be practiced without ensuring the implementation of
Supreme Court directives, while toxic-ship exporting nations will
have to keep in mind that they cannot make a mockery of the Basel
convention, all this at the cost of our environment and the health
of thousands of impacted communities," said Ramapati Kumar,
Greenpeace ship-breaking campaigner, from aboard Rainbow Warrior."
While doing research here we will continue to report specific
instances of violations to the concerned authorities." he added.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace has informed the Ministry of Environment and
Forests regarding the ongoing criminal offence by ship owners on
Indian shores.
Greenpeace is demanding that the International Maritime
Organisation (IMO) make the regime on clean-ship recycling
mandatory, globally binding and in compliance with the Basel
Convention.
For more details contact : Namrata Chowdhary, Media Officer,
Greenpeace India
- Tel - 022 31520697/ (0)9810850092
- email- 