Qualla: 2014 Sundarbans Oil Spill

2014 Sundarbans Oil Spill: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On December 9, 2014, the oil tanker Southern Star VII was carrying 350,000 liters of furnace oil through the Shela River in the Bangladeshi Sundarbans when it collided with a cargo vessel and sank. The captain, Mokhlesur Rahman, drowned -- his body recovered kilometers downstream. Within eight days, the oil had spread across 350 square kilometers of waterways in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, blackening shorelines in one of the most biologically rich mangrove ecosystems on Earth. The Sundarbans had survived cyclones, rising seas, and centuries of human encroachment. Now it was choking on furnace oil.

2014 Sundarbans Oil Spill: The Collision on the Shela

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The accident occurred near Mongla Port in Bangladesh's Khulna Division, roughly 100 kilometers from Kolkata Port across the Indian border. The Shela River runs through a protected mangrove area that serves as habitat for two of South Asia's rarest aquatic mammals: the Irrawaddy d...

2014 Sundarbans Oil Spill: The Animals in the Oil

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On December 18, nine days after the spill, forest department workers recovered two dead oriental small-clawed otters from the Shela River. Autopsies confirmed they had died from ingesting oil. The species is classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List. At the Chandpai range of ...

2014 Sundarbans Oil Spill: Sponges, Sacks, and Bare Hands

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The cleanup was improvised and desperate. Bangladeshi fishermen waded into oil-blackened water armed with sponges and burlap sacks. The government instructed local residents to collect the oil and sell it to the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation -- an arrangement that put subsiste...

2014 Sundarbans Oil Spill: The World Responds, the Forest Endures

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On December 15, Bangladesh's Economic Relations Division wrote to the United Nations office in Dhaka requesting assistance. The UN sent teams from UNEP and OCHA, and the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination unit deployed to support cleanup efforts. India went on al...