Alang ship-breakers, once reviled for pollution, see dollars in green image

Alang-Sosiya is enjoying a rebirth after extended controversy over alleged disregard for environmental norms

File photo of a worker sorting out the engine parts of a decommissioned ship at the Alang shipyard in Gujarat. Alang-Sosiya’s recycling yards have a powerful business incentive to “go green”. Photo: Reuters

Even in the superstitious world of seamen, few things are as eerie and phantasmal as sitting on the beach at Alang in the darkness, watching a ship that has finished its life, sailing in for breaking — effectively its burial.

This happens on full moon and no-moon nights, when the tide rises an astonishing 35 feet above the