BAGERHAT:  Padma Oil depot has bought 8,000 litres furnace oil that spilled from a tanker capsized at Shela river in Sundarbans.

Four days after the accident, the government started conducting a massive operation, engaged 200 locals, to collect spilled furnace oil from cannel of the world’s largest mangrove forest.

Padma Oil depot is collecting the oil at Tk 30 per litre, said Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan while visiting Shela River and adjacent area on Saturday.

Bagerhat Deputy Commissioner M Sukur Ali accompanied the minister at the time.

Earlier on Tuesday, a tanker, Southern Star-7, carrying 3.58 lakh litres of furnace oil capsized in the river of Sundarbans after being knocked by a cargo vessel.

Experts said the spilled oil may cause irreversible ecological damage in the World Heritage Sundarbans Mangrove.

BDST: 1605 HRS, DEC 13, 2014