What Kerala should earn from Sri Lanka’s shipwreck nightmare

June 2025 marks four years since the container vessel X-Press Pearl, ablaze and bleeding toxins into the Indian Ocean, transformed Sri Lanka’s golden coastline into a graveyard of marine life and livelihoods.

The fire burned for 13 days – but its consequences still smolder. Plastic nurdles still wash up with the tide. Fishers still net smaller catches. Courts still chase compensation as corporations count profits. A $6.4- billion suit for damages resulted in just and measly $7.85 million being paid out in compensation.

Now, off Kerala’s coast, MSC Elsa-3 and Wan Hai 503 lie in uneasy silence, ticking time bombs in sunken rusted hulls, carrying their own cargo of chemical danger and bureaucratic amnesia. The parallels are not just uncanny. They are intolerable.

Sri Lanka’s disaster occurred during economic collapse. Kerala has no such excuse. Yet our response of being initially reluctant to arrest the captain or file suits and merely settle for insurance

We are not witnessing accidents. We are watching a global pattern. When ships carrying hazardous cargo sail under Flags of Convenience and developing nations lack enforcement muscle, disasters are inevitable. The question is whether Kerala and India will simply react – or lead.

Sri Lanka’s experience reveals three fatal governance failures. First, the illusion of preparedness. Colombo’s ports had no real spill protocol. Kerala’s current response – hand-sieving plastic nurdles from beaches – is equally symbolic.

Second, the compensation trap. Sri Lanka recovered just 0.1% of its estimated losses. Unless Kerala demands upfront cleanup funds and legal liability, we risk similar token payouts.

Third, institutional amnesia. Despite mass fish deaths and toxic runoff, Sri Lanka never revised its port clearance laws. Kerala’s unchanged protocols after two wrecks suggest not just institutional denial, but a troubling deference to the interests of powerful private conglomerates. This is unbecoming of a Left Democratic Front in power.

The time for half-measures is over. Kerala must act decisively – scientifically, legally, and regionally.

First, we need real-time ecological forensics. Deploy the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Institute of Oceanography and relevant agencies to map contamination, not months later but now. Equip fisherfolk with toxin test kits and crowdsource coastal data. Create public databases to make corporate secrecy impossible.

Second, use India’s own laws, not distant arbitration. File criminal charges under the relevant Environmental Protection and Criminal Negligence Acts. Demand that MSC and Wan Hai deposit clean-up funds before negotiations. And if port operators remain lax, freeze their assets until safety reforms are in place.

Third, empower the people who know the sea best. Train fisher collectives as first responders. Enable them to file claims as cooperatives. Use community science tools to track fish catch declines and contamination trends.

Finally, this must go beyond Kerala. India should lead a South Asian Maritime Safety Pact. Share blacklists of repeat-offender shipping lines. Coordinate joint drills with regional navies. After all, oil slicks and plastic nurdles do not respect borders.

We have a narrow window to act. The sea, once betrayed, is slow to forgive. If Kerala fails to learn from Colombo, we too will face empty beaches, poisoned nets, and endless courtrooms.

The X-Press Pearl showed the cost of silence. Kerala now has a choice: protect our shores or become another case study in global environmental neglect.

John Kurien is a former professor at the Centre for Development Studies in Trivandrum.

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