India / What all has India sent to Mauritius to help the island nation deal with oil spill?

New Delhi: India has assistance to Mauritius to deal with the oil spill which included a 10 member response team from the Indian coast guard and 30 tonnes of technical equipment including oil 10,000 absorbent pads.

The assistance, in response to a request by the Mauritius government, was sent on India Air Force's C17 Globemaster. The equipment includes Ocean Booms, River Booms, Disc Skimmers, Heli Skimmers, Power packs, Inflators, Blowers, Salvage barge and 10000 oil absorbent pads.

The oil absorbent pads are manufactured by India using grapheme, an allotrope of carbon and have been supplied by Indian Oil Corporation.

Notably, the equipment has been provided by the Indian Coast Guard. The coast guard is the nodal body under India's National Oil Spill-Disaster Contingency Plan (NOS-DCP).

Wion had first broken the news on August 8 that India is exploring avenues to help Mauritius to deal with the oil spill. As an initial response, Indian Oil (Mauritius) Limited (IOML) sent a barge ‘Tresta Star’ towards the site and was able to evacuate 1000 tonnes of fuel oil from a tank by August 10.

To this effect the Ministry of External Affairs released a statement on Sunday saying, "India’s assistance is in line with it’s policy to extend humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to its neighbours in the Indian Ocean region, guided by the Prime Minister’s vision of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region)."

The statement further said, "The urgent assistance reflects the close bonds of friendship between India and Mauritius and India’s abiding commitment to assist the people of Mauritius in need."

Last month on July 25, bulk carrier vessel MV Wakashio ran aground on a reef in the southeastern part of Mauritius. The vessel carried around 4000 metric tons of fuel and the spill threatens to impact the entire ecologically sensitive region.

India has been reaching out to countries of the Indian ocean amidst the COVID pandemic. This includes assistance to Mauritius with essential medicines that included a special consignment of Ayurvedic medicines.