Mumbai: Blackish tar like formations layer Juhu beach

MUMBAI:

Juhu

beach locals on Tuesday morning woke up to blackish tar ball like formations on the sea shore. Many said that it had become a recurrent phenomenon every year.

Only that unlike last year when these formations were seen towards Juhu Koliwada side of the beach this time the tar balls were observed near Mora gaon side.

Local corporator Renu Hansraj said this wasn’t surprising as she has been seeing during monsoons almost every year now owing to the churning of ocean. She said that the sea was bound to throw back anything which is piled in it. She pointed that after several weeks these tar balls change form into raw saw dust kind of formations. “Even after a few years if one digs a few feet below the shore at Juhu, these formations may be found buried inside it,” she said.

The agency Spectron Engineers Private Limited which has been hired to clean the beach by the

BMC

also said that their workers have been finding these blacklish formations during the monsoons every year. However they said that unlike now when these are blacklish solidified balls to an extent but in the past these have even spread evenly over the sea shore.

Activist and local resident Zoru Bhathena who also has been noticing these also said that every year in case a lot of it accumulates along the sea shore then the authorities bring a

JCB

and scrape off the top layer. However this he said happens only in case there is a lot collected as there have been instances when the tide changes and these blacklish formations are pulled back into the sea.

Shaunak Modi, a marine researcher and a member of Marine Life of Mumbai (MLOM), said that this could be discharge that occurs from ships while they clean their storage tanks. “This could also be natural discharge accumulating on the sea bed that floats up and comes to the shore. This may be a recurring phenomenon but it needs to be investigated as to why oil as such is making its way to the shore. In the past there have been instances of the entire 6 km of the shore at Juhu being covered in oil,” said Modi.

Vishwas Mote, assistant municipal commissioner of BMC K west ward in charge of Juhu beach said that as these are very sticky and cleaning them is a challenge. "When workers try to lift them up they are unable to collect all of it and therefore residue is many times left back as well," said Mote.


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