Look: Mystery tarballs clog Mumbai’s beaches

Mumbai - Mumbaikars grapple with ecological hazards as officials are clueless about their origin.

Mumbaikars have been experiencing a strange mystery for years during monsoon. The people have found that heavy torrential rains trigger strong currents in the sea and vast quantities of tarballs get washed ashore on the city’s beaches.

Earlier, the natural phenomenon was restricted to Juhu, one of the most popular beaches in northwest Mumbai.

However, there has been a discernible change this year.

The tarballs have washed to other beaches of the metropolis and worse even to other places along the Konkan coast from Ratnagiri in Maharashtra in the south to parts of south Gujarat, which is located north of Mumbai. There have been reports of some beaches in Goa also experiencing tarballs being washed ashore.

Shaunak Modi, director, Coastal Conservation Foundation, a Juhu resident, told Khaleej Times that the tarballs have been getting washed to the beach every monsoon since 2017.

“Thousands of tonnes of tar balls get washed ashore. It’s a major challenge to clear the beach,” he said.

This year has been one of the worst. Though the problem has got aggravated, Modi said that the authorities have still not identified the source and whether it is crude or processed oil. Some suspect it is leakage from an offshore oil rig.

“We filed a complaint in 2019, but nothing has emerged,” he said.
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board had taken samples, but the reports are yet to be released.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) deploys teams of workers with machines to clear the beaches.
However, government and civic bodies have still not been able to identify the sources of the tarballs.

nithin@khaleejtimes.com

• India