Nurdle menace persists a year after MSC Elsa 3 disaster off Kerala coast

As the first anniversary of the MSC Elsa 3 shipping disaster draws near, coastal Thiruvananthapuram is still battling the ‘nurdle menace,’ the environmental challenge posed by zillions of tiny plastic pellets that washed ashore after the Liberian-flagged vessel sank off Kerala in May 2025.

Despite clean-up efforts made in the immediate aftermath of the nurdle landings, large numbers of the plastic pellets are still visible on beaches in Thiruvananthapuram. For example, on the Kannanthura beach north of Shanghumughom and the Hawa beach (Eve’s Beach) further south at tourist hotspot Kovalam, hundreds of these pellets lie mixed up with other debris and the beach sand. Coastal residents and Environment department officials said the beach clean-up by the firm tasked with onshore salvage has ceased.

Classified as primary microplastics, nurdles, another name for the pellets, are between 1 mm to 5 mm in diameter. Figuring high on the global plastic chain, these tiny pre-production plastics made from polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride are not toxic in themselves. But their minuscule size and buoyancy make them a dangerous pollutant. In the ocean, they can get ingested by fish and other marine organisms and over time, even enter human diets.

On State’s inexperience

Friends of Marine Life (FML), a Thiruvananthapuram-based organisation working in the area of marine biodiversity, point to the persistent presence of the pellets on beaches here. “The sea here has turned rough now, so there is always a possibility of pellets floating about in the sea getting washed ashore,” FML convener Robert Panipilla said. Given Kerala’s relative inexperience in handling such disasters, the State has to be doubly alert against such threats, said Mr. Panipilla.

The MSC Elsa 3 had listed to one side and sank around 14.6 nautical miles off the Kerala coast over May 24 and May 25, 2025. At the time it was reported that the ship’s cargo comprised 643 containers. In the days that followed, several of these had washed ashore in Kerala’s coastal districts, sparking widespread concern. On May 29, the Kerala government declared the ship’s wreckage a ‘State-specific disaster’ considering its “potentially serious environmental, social and economic impact.”

Clearing the pellets from the beaches had presented a stiff challenge ever since. A situation report issued by the Directorate General of Shipping in August 2025 read thus: “Clean-up efforts remain active, with 600 volunteers currently engaged. However, the daily collection of nurdles has plateaued, with the cumulative recovery estimated to be in the range of 629-639 metric tons. Coastal monitoring continues due to intermittent reports of nurdle washups, which are being responded to promptly.”

How the upcoming southwest monsoon season impacts the nurdle landings remains to be seen.

A. Biju Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), stresses the need for monitoring as the nurdles pose a permanent threat. “Being non-biodegradable, the pellets could last for years, and depending on the patterns of the ocean currents they could move about and wash ashore,” said Dr. Biju Kumar.