The recent capsizing of a cargo ship, MSC ELSA 3, that sailed from Vizhinjam on May 24 off the Kochi coast in the Arabian Sea and the resulting environmental contamination have served as a harsh reality check for Kerala, caught up in its ambitious dreams of becoming the next Singapore or Dubai with the launch of the Vizhinjam International Seaport, India's first deep water transhipment terminal. But, have we truly grasped the gravity of the environmental emergency triggered by the wreck of the 28-year-old Liberian-flagged container vessel owned and operated by the world's largest container shipping company, the Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)?

Many experts now regard it as the worst marine pollution incident in the state's history, which holds the record of having the country’s cleanest coast. Reports Urban Acres, an environmentalist website: “A mounting environmental emergency is unfolding across the southern coast of Kerala as toxic plastic nurdles—small, lentil-sized pellets used in plastic production—have washed ashore in vast numbers following the sinking of the container ship MSC ELSA 3. The incident is triggering widespread alarm among ecologists, marine biologists, and coastal communities, as the state confronts one of its worst-ever marine pollution episodes.”

According to India’s premier environmentalist publication, Down To Earth, the tiny plastic pellets -nurdles- found in large numbers on Kerala's many coastal regions which the containers in the capsized ship had, could be consumed by fish, turtles, and sea birds which may enter food chains and potentially end up in human diets.

The flood of reports about the likely chemical pollution caused by the shipwreck has caused panic and a major fall in fish sales in the state, throwing the local fisherfolk lives into a quandary. However, aquatic experts like Prof VN Sajeevan of Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies maintain that since MSC ELSA 3 was only a medium-sized cargo vessel and not a major oil tanker, there was no need to fear a big oil spill or massive chemical pollution. According to him, there was no........

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