Impact of accidental leakage of furnace oil on Mahul creek mangrove vegetation

477-481A pipeline carrying furnace/black oil from Butcher Island to the petrochemical complex at Mahul in Mumbai started leaking during 3rdweek of October 2013and went unnoticed till first week of November2013. The alignment of the pipeline is through an intertidal mudflat (0.240 km2) and about 0.052 km2 area covered by luxuriant mangrove growth, mainly of Avicenniamarina (Forssk). On 36th day after the notification of oil spill incident, a field study was carried out to assess the impact on mangroves that were found dead due to smothering of their breathing roots with oil. Sediment core (40cm) samples were collected from the intertidal region showed high accumulation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons (PHc, 1496 µg/g wet wt) at 2 cm sediment depth. The concentration of PHc at 20cm and 40cm of the core was 25 µg/g and 58 µg/g wet wt. Such variation in the sediment core may be due to anthropogenic perturbation