Mumbai:
Nearly two months after the ship collision off the Mumbai coast, one of its most famous tourist destinations - the Elephanta Caves - is still bearing the environmental impact. The devastation is so severe that marine life there is almost destroyed.
The sands have blackened and the beach water is glistening with oil. The young mangrove trees have been totally destroyed by the oil slick.
Nearly a 1000 tonnes of oil had spilt into the sea in August after two ships collided off Mumbai's coast.
Four dolphins have died since then.
"Even now right along the shore it's black with oil. We have started fishing, but the sand is oily," said PK Bhoi, a fisherman at the Elephanta Island.
Ground evidence is backed by a preliminary report of the Bombay Natural History Society. It says, of the eight sites affected, Elephanta Island and Vashi are the worst. Marine life here is almost wiped out.
"The quantity of oil which flowed into Elephanta is much more because it was closer to the collision site. It' difficult to say when the mangroves here will regenerate, if at all," said Dr. Deepak Apte, Marine Biologist and Research Associate at the Bombay Natural History Society.
The scale of destruction is so vast that biologists fear it may even be beyond nature's healing touch.