Containers of MV ITT Puma, a sunken ship washed ashore off Odisha beach

KENDRAPARA : Two containers of a sunken ship packed with household goods were washed ashore off Satabhaya beach within Gahirmatha marine sanctuary under Rajnagar block of Odiaha’s Kendrapara district on Monday.

It appears both the containers have been lost at sea after a cargo vessel sank in the sea last week, said an official. A label on the side of both containers stated that they were owned by a logistics company called ITT Lines Private Limited, Kolkata.

The MV ITT Puma, a Mumbai-registered general cargo vessel, was en route from Kolkata to Port Blair when it reportedly sank last Monday around 90 nautical miles south of Sagar Island, West Bengal.

Stormy weather caused shipping containers to drift from the sunken ship to Satabhaya Beach. Police and forest officials rushed to the beach cordoned off the area and warned people to keep a safe distance from the containers.

The authorities are still investigating what the item could be in the containers. Most of the items in the containers were washed away as doors were left wide open due to the impact of sea waves, said the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Bhitarkanika National Park, Sudarshan Gopinath Yadav.

The items in the containers lost in the sea can be harmful to the marine environment as they might be chemicals, oils, plastics, and other pollutants. The pollutants of this nature are a cause of concern as Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary is regarded as the world’s largest rookery of Olive Ridley sea turtles.

“All the containers of the sunken ship have only household materials. The ship was sailing from Kolkata to Port Blair when the cargo vessel capsized”, an official of ITT Lines Private Limited, Kolkata said.

It may be recalled that the Indian Coast Guard rescued 11 crew members from the sunken ship last Monday and brought them to Paradip last Tuesday.