3 years after Bangladeshi ship sank in Hoogly, siltation puts Gangasagar festival under cloud

A Bangladeshi cargo ship that sank in the Ganges delta at the height of the pandemic-induced lockdown three years ago has resurfaced to haunt authorities in West Bengal, threatening the year's first major religious festival, the Gangasagar Mela.

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The reason the capsized vessel has hastened siltation in the Muriganga river, a distributary of the mighty Hoogly in the Sunderbans region, precipitating the birth of a riverine island, or char, which is now blocking the shal low stretch of water boats take to ferry nearly four million pilgrims to the confluence point of the Ganges and the Bay of Bengal.

Experts say that unless the ship, MV Dhrubo Rupanti, is removed, the accumulating silt would eventually choke the Muriganga river, turning its gushing flow only into a tidal creek.

"This year suddenly a char has surfaced. We haven't noticed any char in that area in the last two to three decades. The siltation took place because of a Bangladeshi ship that had sunk a few years ago. Additional dredging machines have been deployed this year to create alternate channels. The ship couldn't be removed all these years," said Bankim Chandra Hazra, state Sunderban Affairs ministers.

The issue flagged about a month ago came up in an administrative meeting held by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on December 27 to take stock of preparations for the Gangasagar Mela, scheduled between January 8 and 17.

"Siltation has been going on and now it has developed into a char. Won't other vessels bump into that sunken ship? Anytime an accident may take place," the CM asked bureaucrats at the meeting.