Cement plants and other industries that have mushroomed on the coastal belt in recent years have developed their own jetties to expedite export and import, resulting in increased marine movement. But, the rocky coastal shelf and coral formations are a recipe for disaster.

Already, there have been two major oil spills, including the one last week at Mul Dwarka near Kodinar, which have polluted large stretches of the coast and left behind huge oil blots where there were splendid corals and an assortment of marine life.

The Saurashtra coast has a unique marine environment with over 200 varieties of fish, 25 species of prawns, snakes and turtles and about 16 types of water and terrestrial birds.

On June 16, 1998, about 1,200 tonnes of furnace oil leaked from a barge. The barge, Ocean Grace, was being towed by a tug but the main line snapped leaving it adrift. The towless barge hit the rocky beach on Porbandar coast near Katdi village and sprang a leak. Result: an oil slick about 5 kms in length and about 20 to 30 feet wide in some places.

In December 1998, a barge carrying about 20,000 tons of coal got stuck on the Veraval coast, forcing it to dump several thousand tons of coal into the sea. The thick layer of coal dust that formed on the surface took several days to sink while the coal floated ashore.

On July 9, a Liberian steamer carrying about 34,000 tonnes of coal and 1,500 tons of furnace oil for a cement company in Kodinar ran aground near Mul Dwarka, about a mile into the sea, while approaching a jetty on the Kodinar coast. The steamer, Pacific Academy, immediately started leaking, causing a massive oil slick.

There are nearly a dozen jetties on the Saurashtra coast scattered from Kodinar down below where Ambuja Cements, Pipapav port, L & T and Narmada Cements have jetties to the Essar and Reliance jetties up above on the Jamnagar coast.

However, the rocky shelves through which there are channels leading to these jetties are often death traps for vessels coming in with cargo. And the cargo they are carrying is often deadly -- lube oil, furnace oil, paints, soda ash and noxious chemicals.

``A slight misjudgment by the pilot or an extra swell in the tide due to bad weather can lead to mishaps in these channels,'' a senior port officer told Express Newsline. ``Besides, the draft in several narrow channels is not very deep and is interspersed with corals which has resulted in minor mishaps several times.''

In fact, when P N Roychowdhury recently took over as Secretary of Ports and realised that shipping on Saurashtra coast was fraught with danger, he immediately rushed to the Safety Advisor of India M M Dey seeking advice on how to improve safety and shipping coordination along the coast.

Talking to Express Newsline, Roychowdhury said, ``The Gujarat Maritime Board is considered to be very progressive but the price we are paying for that in terms of damage to environment cannot be estimated. We cannot allow huge rewards to be reaped by captive jetties without observing discipline of shipping. There should be profitability with accountability. The GMB is now trying to collar all the parties whose approach is incorrect and who do not observe standard shipping procedures like using pilots to navigate vessels to the jetty, tugs and observing the tide precautions strictly.''

``In the light of recent mishaps on the coast, we are also asking the private sector to improve and upgrade navigation facilities and enhance safety standards,'' Roychowdhury said.

The hazards of encouraging captive jetties has also dawned on the State Government, though a trifle late. According to GMB chairman A D Desai, the new port policy has no provisions for new captive jetties although an investment of a whopping Rs 60,000 crore is expected by 2001 in Saurashtra.

``There have been mishaps and costly mistakes. And you will notice that none of them occurred in port limits where all procedures are followed. We are inquiring into all the incidents involving captive jetty shipping,'' he told Express Newsline.