Highlights:
- Massive fire at an oil well in Assam
- The oil well was leaking since 14 days
- As many as 6,000 people were forced to evacuate as a result
A massive fire engulfed a Natural-Gas producing well of Oil India Limited (OIL) in the Tinsukia district of upper Assam which was reportedly leaking since the past 14 days. It is being reported that the fire, which began this afternoon, could even spread to the nearby areas.
Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister of Assam, has spoken to the Union Petroleum Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan after the fire broke. The National Disaster Response Force or commonly called NDRF has already been deployed to the site since the time of the gas leak.
Additionally, the top officials of the state are also reviewing the situation.
Reports say that that the “well killing” experts have already been deployed to the side which were flown in from Singapore on Monday. They joined the operations from today morning.
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This oil well in the Baghjan Tinsukia, which is around 500 kilometres from Guwahati the capital of Assam, has a blowout on the 27th of May following which there has been a gas leakage i.e. 14 days. This caused grave danger to the region’s wetlands as well as the biodiversity.
The local population have shared how the gas condensate deposits in the Maguri Beel wetland, carcasses of the endangered Gangetic dolphins and many other marine life were floating in the Dibru-Saikhowa National park, which is merely 3 kilometres from the oil well.
Reports said that the “Paddy fields, ponds and wetlands in the adjoining villages have also been contaminated and the threat is growing with every passing day. Several small tea growers in the area have also complained about layers of gas condensates in their tea gardens.”
As many as 6,000 people living in the radius of 1.5 kilometres of the Natural-Gas producing Oil Well were forced to evacuate. They were then taken to a relief camp. OIL has announced that financial aid of Rs, 30,000 will be given to every family which was affected.
