Two environmental activists took a boat and clambered on to the decommissioned French warship 'Clemenceau,' 50 nautical miles off the Egypt coast on Thursday, and halted the ship's progress towards the Suez canal on its way to India for being dismantled at Alang in Gujarat, Greenpeace said.
Greens against warship's final journey
"We intercepted and boarded the aircraft carrier, which is being sent to India despite widespread outrage at the high levels of asbestos and other hazardous materials it contains," Greenpeace Toxics' Campaigner Ramapati Kumar said over phone.
The two activists also unfurled a banner on the ship's mast stating: 'Asbestos Carrier - Stay out of India,' he said.
"We are now asking Egypt to refuse permission to Clemenceau to enter the Suez Canal and halt its progress towards Gujarat," activist Namrata Choudhary said.
'Asbestos: not here, nor elsewhere'
Greenpeace has been maintaining that the ship was being brought to Gujarat for breakup in violation of the Basel Convention against trade in hazardous materials.
"The Clemenceau presents an immediate danger to the Indian environment and to the workers at the Alang ship-breaking yard," a Greenpeace statement quoted campaigner Jacob Hartmann, who climbed the ship, as saying.
The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on hazardous waste management had on last Friday said that the 24,200 tonne ship was 'not welcome' in India.
"India will be a party to the violation of the Basel Convention on movement of hazardous wastes if it allows the ship near the country's exclusive economic zone," committee chairman G Thyagarajan had told reporters in Mumbai.
His comment followed a presentation by a representative of Technopure, the company tasked to decontaminate the ship. The official told the SCMC that Clemenceau contained more than 500 tonnes of toxic asbestos.
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