‘The ocean looks black and shiny’: India struggles to contain, clean up oil spill

NEW DELHI — Nearly a week after the collision of two cargo ships spilled several tons of oil into the waters off southern India, ­hundreds of local officials and fishermen continued to struggle to clear the sludge that is now spreading into additional coastal areas, damaging local fishing communities.

The two ships, carrying liquefied petroleum gas and oil, collided Saturday near the Kamarajar port in the Bay



of Bengal, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

“The ocean looks black and shiny. The rocks are slippery with the slick,” said Venkatesh ­Angamuthu, a 36-year-old fisherman in the Mugathuvarukuppam village. “Fifty of us from my village have been assisting the disaster team for the last two days to ­remove the slick manually with buckets. We have no protective masks or gloves. Our fish market is fully down.”