The Madras High Court has dismissed a petition seeking detention of the two ships that had collided off the city’s coast on January 28. The bench said the state government and the Centre could take the call, The Hindu reported on Friday.

The Public Interest Litigation was filed by Chennai’s National Union of Fishermen, who had held that the ships might flee the country to avoid legal action. However, the court said a First Information Report had already been registered in the case, and it was now the responsibility of the government to ensure strict action was taken against the perpetrators.

On Thursday, Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said 60 tonnes of oil had been cleared from the site. However, Coast Guard Inspector General S Parmesh on Friday said 116 tonnes of sludge had been cleared from the beaches so far. He also said oil had not spilled into the sea, reported ANI. “Coast Guard is giving full support so that there is no loss to marine life,” he said.

Union shipping minister Pon Radhakrishnan said it would take another one to two days to clean up the sludge. He said more than 2,000 people were helping with the cleaning work.

The Coast Guard had initially believed only around one tonne of oil had spilled into the sea. After the incident, several turtles and hatchlings have been found dead near Ernavour which is known for Olive Ridley turtles. The spill has also affected the sale of fish in the area. Around 30 km of the coastline has reportedly been affected by the sludge.

Environmentalists believe the administration are under-playing the oil spill, though. Earlier it was reported that workers were manually cleaning the coast. Arun Krishnamurthy, founder of the Environment Foundation of India, told Mint that the oil spill cannot be manually cleaned up. He said that “advanced technology, mechanised methods and rapid measures” are necessary to tackle the spread of oil. Krishnamurthy added that a disaster was being under-played, according to the publication.