No major damage to local ecology: OIL on Baghjan gas and oil leak
No major damage was caused to the local ecology of Upper Assam, where the Baghjan gas well blowout had occurred on May 27, followed by a fire on June 9 , Oil India Limited’s (OIL) senior-most official said on Tuesday.
“We have engaged various independent organisations, including The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI); Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Guwahati and others. No major damage has been caused to ecology. Only some areas need to be restored. But that can happen only by the end of November when the entire blowout has been brought under control,” said Sushil Chandra Mishra, chairman and managing director (CMD), OIL, following the 61st Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the public sector undertaking (PSU).
The Baghjan gas well blowout led to oil and gas leaking into the adjacent Maguri Motapung wetland, the surrounding grasslands and river water. The industrial disaster is understood to have caused extensive damage to biodiversity and unique habitat of the region, according to the scientists and environmental researchers who have visited the site.
