Conditions in the relief camp, say displaced villagers, are simply inadequate.
Tinsukia, Assam:
First a gas leak, then a blaze so massive that you can see it from a distance of 40 km and now the earthquakes shake the earth – Loknath Bora has not known a disaster of this magnitude in 70 years of its life.
His village Natungaon, about 2 km from the Baghjan oil field, has been so severely affected by earthquakes that people flee, fearing that a major earthquake is on the way.
“We first saw oil condensate settle in the area after a gas leak, we had a lot of breathing problems now, we feel tremors, the sound is huge. I am a heart patient, I am upset, “Bora told GalacticGaming.
Her son Rajib said that the villagers were so terrified that they fled the village overnight. “People were terrified and we transferred them to relief camps overnight,” added Rajib.
The gas leak, the oil spill and the fire destroyed standing crops, vegetation and large areas of tea gardens.
The fire in the well is so massive that it can be seen at a distance of 40 km with thick black smoke rising several meters high, endangering local biodiversity in Dibru-Saikhowa national park after the eruption from May 27.
The company and the Tinsukia district administration said they had evacuated about 7,000 people from areas near the Baghjan gas well site to 12 relief camps.
But conditions in the camp, say displaced villagers, are simply inadequate.
“We get rice but the food for the children is not provided on time. I have to go back to work because every day off my wages will be cut,” Sabita told GalacticGaming as she waited for food and water in one of the first aid. camp set up by Oil India limited with the help of the district administration.
The camp housed over three hundred workers from the Dighaltarang tea estate’s tea garden adjacent to Baghjan’s No. 5 well.
“We plan to return in any case, because Indian oil would not pay us the salary. The garden management wants us to come to work because it is the season for picking in the garden. We are already struck by the lockdown” added another. added Gopal, a tea gardener.
The fear and anxiety were visible in each of the villagers in each of the relief camps that GalacticGaming visited.
“We have been living in fear and trauma for almost two weeks. For a fortnight, the gas was leaking. The smell of hydrocarbon was so intense that we started to have respiratory problems. The oil condensate s “is deposited all around. Our eyes are burning even now. The fire destroyed half of our village and now we feel completely in danger because the earth is shaking,” said Sanjib Moran of the village of Baghjan.
The Assam government has ordered a probe and Oil India is hiring more foreign experts to put out the fire and close the gas leak.
“The investigation will also investigate the allegation of negligence by certain officials of the company and its private well operator. It will discover who is responsible for this tragedy,” said a senior official in the minister’s office. in chief (CMO). press agency Press Trust of India.
The investigation will try to find out how the whole tragedy unfolded and what steps should be taken to prevent such incidents from happening again in the future, said the CMO official.
A PIL was filed Wednesday in the High Court of Gauhati against OIL, John Energy, the Center and the State for the explosion of Major PSU’s Baghjan gas well and the successive fires, which damaged lives and property In the region.
