The Indian Coast Guard on Friday organized 'Clean Sea-4' - the fourth edition of national pollution control exercise - off coast of Kochi.

The exercise demonstrated the Coast Guard’s preparedness and readiness to contain an environmental debacle in case of an oil spill.

The exercise started with a demonstration of use of river booms by CPT vessels. The Coast Guard used skimmers, oil spill dispersers and aircrafts to demonstrate their readiness to contain such a debacle.

Indian Coast Guard Ship Samudra Prahari; advanced offshore patrol vessels like ICGS Samar and Sangram; fast patrol vessels like ICGS Kasturba Gandhi and Savitri Bai Phule; three Chetak helicopters and two Dornier aircraft also participated in the exercise.

The exercise was overseen by Coast Guard Director General Vice-Admiral M. P. Muralidharan. Speaking about the exercise, he said, “While spills of up to 700 tonnes are to be handled locally, the Coast Guard can contain spills of 10,000 tonnes, beyond which experts from outside are called in.”

Over the last three years, nearly twelve oil spills occurred. Muralidharan stressed that there was a greater need to be ready for oil spill contingencies as more and more liquefied natural gas stations were coming up and vessel traffic was on the rise.

Three pollution response centres at Mumbai, Chennai and Port Blair have been established by the Coast Guard to fight back any such oil spill contingency.