In Gandhinagar, Chief Wildlife Warden G A Patel ordered a thorough probe into the incident and forest officials registered offences against staff of Indian Oil Corporation for allegedly violating the Wild Life Protection Act. Patel told The Indian Express that orders had also been issued from Gandhinagar to forest officials attached to the Jamnagar Circle to ensure that IOC suspend immediately the handling of imported crude oil in the high seas.

Reacting to the decision, D P Mandal, IOC's chief human resourcemanager, western region, denied any oil leakage from his company's pipeline. He also denied receiving any communication from any authority on the incident. ``How can they pinpoint to IOC? Not a single drop has leaked. We have checked the pipeline with the Kandla Port Trust and Coast Guard. Our system is foolproof,'' he said.

The probe, said Patel, will be carried out by a three-member team comprising the chief conservator of forest (Jamnagar Circle), the district forest officer and the range forest officer. It is expected to submit its report to Patel in a couple of days, after which suitable action will be initiated against `erring' IOC officers. At Narara, Marine National Park Director R C Pal said investigation of the source of the slick and the extent of damage would continue but the first offence report would stand as the slick had spread round the company's pipelines. The sections of the Wildlife Protection Act under which the offences have been registered relate to the ``damage to habitat and marinelife in the Marine National Marine Park and the Sanctuary'', Patel said, adding that the penalty for violating these sections was three years' imprisonment or Rs 25,000 fine or both.

The IOC, Patel said, would not be allowed to import crude oil or carry out any other activity in the high seas till the investigating team submitted its report to him. ``We have also decided to seek an explanation from the forest officers concerned as to why they failed to monitor the IOC activity off the Vadinar coast'', the CWW said.

However, Pal of the Marine National Park admitted they had little to go on against IOC except that the slick was centred on the company's pipeline. The department, he said, had no idea if there was any leakage from the pipeline at all. This was symptomatic of the state of confusion surrounding the incident. Amidst conflicting versions of the authorities, both the time when the slick originated and its source shroud in mystery. Patel said the oil leak had been caused not by any breach in the IOCpipeline carrying imported crude oil to the Mathura refinery, but while offloading oil at the single point mooring set up by the IOC off the Vadinar coast.

Sources in a government agency in Porbandar, meanwhile, said the oil slick appeared about 10 days old and might have been caused by some ship going to Kandla. ``Ships are required to dispose of their used oil on the high seas, but some rogue ship appears to have spilt it in this area,'' the source said.

JAMNAGAR, NOV 26: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) officials, fearing arrest over alleged spillage of oil from its pipeline to multi-complex oil terminal at Vadinar, have moved for an anticipatory bail in the Sessions Court here.

IOC senior maintenance manager S C Saxena and deputy maintenance manager S C Chorasiya sought bail following a first information report filed by forest officials.

The IOC had yesterday denied any leakage from their pipeline. Following an inspection carried out by senior officials of the corporation's pipeline division andforest department of the Nararbet National Marine Park on Wednesday, it was found that the pipeline, including the single buoy mooring was intact, IOC officials said.