Kakinada Beach in India has been saved!
The beautiful beach of Kakinada (India) would soon have turned into a scrapyard for old, toxic ships, threatening the lives of local people and the nearby Coringa nature reserve. Protests from India and the rest of the world have convinced the local government to change its mind.
The white sandy beaches of Kakinada, India are saved from being turned into polluting scrapyards. In April 2005 a worldwide ban on single hull oil tankers (initiated by the European Union) came into effect, but there were (and still are) hardly any clean and safe ship breaking facilities. So most ships with toxic and oil waste onboard sail their last journey to the ship breaking yards of Asia, where they are scrapped under appalling circumstances.
Mangrove forests
The shallow Bay of Kakinada is an ecologically sensitive area. Some 20 km south of this port town is located one of the last big united mangrove area of South East Asia. In the coastal zone the mangrove forests act as a barrier against erosion and high tidal waves. The mangrove also protects the inlands against cyclones: the area is cyclone prone during October and November. They provide food and shelter to numerous species of fish and birds, sea otters and monkeys. The mangrove trees breath from the roots that grow in the saline water. So they are very vulnerable to oil pollution by the ships for scrap.
