Goa has been witnessing tarball deposits on its beach stretches since the 1970s. But from around 2004, the frequency of their appearance has increased, with the residue seen almost every summer and monsoon period on different coastal stretches.
Last year, thestatehad submitted a report to the Union Environment ministry and is still awaitingsolutionto this issue. State environment minister Nilesh Cabral has already stated that the phenomenon is due to movement of oil tankers. He said that the submitted its report to the Union ministry for environment, forest and Climate-change”>Climate Change and is discussing ways on how to address the issue.
The tourism department is worried as the tarballphenomenon is severe this time and is affecting major beaches of North Goa and some in South.
Goa is the only state to have an oil spill disaster contingency plan, but marine microbiologists said that quicker action is required to remove tar balls when they appear. Because of their nature tar balls block Oxygen to sediments and Soil and harm marine biota and in-turn the whole marine food chain gets disturbed.