Protecting Marine Biodiversity From Ship- Generated Pollution: Assessing India’s Preventive Legal And Regulatory Framework
Divya Singh, Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law, Bhutan
Azma Khan, Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench)
ABSTRACT
Marine ecosystems are important for their role in sustaining ecological balance, biodiversity, food security, and coastal livelihoods. Marine life is increasingly affected by pressures associated with the Anthropocene, including ocean acidification and pollution generated by marine vessels. Ships generate pollution, including oil, sewage, garbage, cargo residues, and other operational discharges, threatening marine organisms and coastal ecosystems. Marine biodiversity is also at risk from vessel collisions, particularly in high-traffic corridors, and from greenhouse gas emissions generated by shipping activity.
India’s approach to marine pollution is an amalgamation of international obligations and domestic legislation. Internationally, discharges of oil, sewage, and garbage are regulated by MARPOL 73/78; coastal and flag state duties by UNCLOS; transfer of invasive species by the Ballast Water Management Convention; and shipping emissions by the IMO’s greenhouse gas strategy. India implements these obligations through the Merchant Shipping Act 2025, the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, the Coastal Regulation Zone framework, the Water Act 1974, and the Biological Diversity Act 2002. This paper critically examines the effectiveness of this framework in protecting marine biodiversity from ship-generated pollution and identifies gaps in its implementation and enforcement. In doing so, it asks whether India’s legal architecture adequately addresses the specific ecological harm caused by ships and vessels or whether structural and enforcement gaps leave marine biodiversity inadequately protected.
Adopting a doctrinal and qualitative methodology, this paper analyses relevant legislation, conventions, judicial decisions, and pollution incidents. The Ennore spill in 2017 leaked up to 196 tonnes of bunker fuel, subsequently linked by a peer-reviewed study to gill damage in coastal crabs. Olive Ridley turtles continue to die from trawler bycatch, with 6,320 deaths recorded in the 2019 to 2020 season alone. These incidents suggest that India’s laws are comprehensive on paper but inconsistently enforced and fragmented in practice, a pattern that recurs across successive rounds of legislative reform rather than resulting from any single failure. The paper concludes by proposing measures to close the gap between what new laws promise and what they actually change.
Keywords: marine pollution, ship-generated pollution, MARPOL, marine biodiversity, enforcement.
