Sri Lanka, July 30 -- In the wake of the landmark judgement delivered by the Supreme Court ordering $ 1 billion as interim compensation over the X-Press Pearl disaster, the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) of Sri Lanka, along with other stakeholders, initiated action to claim similar payments over the disaster being caused by the Liberia-flagged container ship MSC ELSA 3 that caught fire off Kerala, India recently, Daily Mirror learns.

The sinking of this ship off the Kochi coast in Kerala on May 25, has triggered an environmental crisis along the Kerala and Tamil Nadu coast in India and the northern coastal belt of Sri Lanka because it spilled plastic nurdles - tiny pellets used in plastic manufacturing.

MEPA Chairman Sam...