‘Baghjan blowout harmed Gangetic dolphins’

REPORT OF another fire breaking out at Baghjan on Sunday just 200 meters ahead of the oil well blowout site

Amidst report of another fire breaking out at Baghjan on Sunday just 200 meters ahead of the oil well blowout site, a report of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), finding that the Baghjan well blowout has harmed the endangered Gangetic dolphins and the impact of the uncontrolled oil and gas emissions will have long-term impact due to contamination of groundwater, has become a major area for environment activists in Assam.

It is significant that there has been a report that another fire broke out from the condensate oil kept in the field at Baghjan oil field in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia. However, Oil India Limited (OIL) has not yet confirmed the reason of the fire, it has created panic among the locals at Baghjan. Earlier an explosion occurred at the site in which three foreign experts were injured.

Meanwhile, the study of the WII on cumulative impact of the gas wells has revealed that oil wells in and around the national park will be detrimental to the region’s unique ecosystem and that it is also extremely vulnerable to earthquakes.

Calling for an assessment of the cumulative impact of the gas wells, the CII in its report to the Centre said that a dolphin was found dead from poisoning from the oil spill. The location of the blowout near DibruSaikhowa National Park, the Maguri-Motapung wetlands, are home to endangered hoolock gibbons and Gangetic dolphins. The Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change has sent the WII’s findings to the Assam government to begin restoration work.

“Given the potential of oil blowout and oil spill disaster like this... such oil wells in the vicinity of Dibru-Saikhowa National

Park and important bird area complex... will be detrimental to the conservation value of this unique ecosystem,” the report said.

The report said that richness in bird species was found to increase with an increase in distance from the site, possibly due to the oil spill and intense noise from the blowout. The decline in bird species was highest in grasslands (59 per cent) and wetlands (85 per cent) compared to areas located away from the site, it added.