Baghjan tragedy

Baghjan is a small village in Tinsukia of Assam and it is close to a wildlife sanctuary called Dibru-Saikhowa National Park which is a beautiful bio diversity, famous for its rare white-winged wood ducks and it is also home to many other endangered species.

So on 27th of May 2020.. Thats the day when every attention of the media was towards the pregnant elephant that lost its life by eating the pineapple filled with crackers, and yes!! I was hurt inside as well after going through such posts.

But, as Assam ever lacked media attention ,so none of the media covered the Gangetic river dolphin carcass in the waters of Dibru saikhowa. And the reason of this is the constant uncontrollable blowout of oil and natural gas from Baghjan oil field.

https://www.econe.in/post/oil-spill-and-fire-threatens-dibru-saikhowa-national-park-maguri-wetland

In a few days the situation started getting worst and over 2000 people were moved to relief camps.

OIL reportedly called for a team of experts from Singapore Alert Disaster Control to plug the leak.

To control gripping of fire from the blowout ,water was also being sprayed by OIL. But nothing worked and on 9th of June a major fire broke out from the oil field destroying widspread property of the poor people living in that area.

On 10th of June 2020, 2 dead bodies of employees were found which is very saddening. The fire made a huge impact on the lives of the people living there. On 11th of May there was earthquake like situation due to the heat produced by the growing temparature of the place.

The residents of Baghjan have been protesting since then for compensation of loss. OIL on the other hand said that it will be paying compensation of 30,000 to each of the affected families and it will take nearly 6 months to restore the area, said the OIL spokesperson Hazarika.

Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal ordered a high level enquiry into the blowout by additional chief secretary Mahindra Singh and asked him to report within 15 days.

2 officials has been suspended for alleged negligence of duty in the gas blowout.”The company is carrying out an internal inquiry and we have placed two officials responsible for the well under suspension,once the probe is over,we will take a final decision on their role,” the official told.

Further an environment activist filed FIR against OIL. He said that OIL’s statement made it clear that drilling operation had been outsourced without any preventive measure for blowout.

Minister of petroleum and natural gas has also set up a 3 membered high level committee to look into the matter.

However a well controlled operation has been prepared by OIL to control the situation and the fire has been controlled but fire is still being released from the well 5 of Baghjan oil field which will take nearly 21 days to blaze off.

Thanks for giving your precious time to go through my post. Read the links below for more informations.

OIL says extent of fire confined to well, Sonowal orders probe
http://toi.in/gNxgya
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Petroleum minister orders probe into Baghajan well explosion
http://toi.in/WYyLmb
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