Alang, in the state of Gujarat, India, is a sprawling graveyard where rusted leviathans find their final resting place. Here, at the largest shipbreaking yard on the planet, thousands of vessels have met their end.
Alang Ship Breaking Yard, a vast complex of 183 individual breaking yards, rose from obscurity in 1983, swiftly amassing an estimated net worth exceeding 110 billion dollars. This intricate network of yards undertakes the monumental task of dismantling enormous, decommissioned vessels and salvaging and repurposing the materials they once carried.
At its height in 2012, Alang processed 415 maritime monsters in a year, with much of the work done between tides and by hand. Alang’s 15,000 manual workers routinely flood onto the sands, surround the beached ships, and salvage what they can.
Often it takes days for ships to be mechanically winched out of the mud and far enough up the beach that they can be worked on due to their immense weight, sometimes causing them to ground half a mile from shore.
Yet, the ships that meet their end at Alang are not mere shells of steel and iron. Retired freight and cargo vessels arrive carrying a cargo of their own—materials now deemed unsuitable, even hazardous, for the shipbuilding industry. Lead, asbestos, acids, mercury, and the deadly carcinogens known as PCBs are daily encounters for workers.
This has led to a number of controversies regarding Alang’s environmental impact and the health, safety, and working conditions of its employees. The beaches on which Alang is based are heavily polluted, and the water contains a dangerous quantity of heavy metals.
The plight of Alang's migrant workers adds another layer to the controversy. Reports indicate they receive half the wages of their counterparts, and there have been allegations of employers erasing employment records of fallen workers to avoid paying compensation.
Efforts have been made to improve the workers' conditions, including building the Alang Hospital, which is designed to provide emergency care.
However, the extent of the pollution has not improved. The International Labour Office still considers shipbreaking to be one of the most deadly professions in the world, partly due to the noxious fumes and cancer-causing gasses inhaled by shipbreakers every day...
