Cuddalore is another Bhopal

Cuddalore is another Bhopal

Cuddalore is another Bhopal in the making of SIPCOT, Cuddalore, and highlight the threats of pollution-intensive industrialization facing Cuddalorthe SIPCOT industrial estate -- is seriously affected by pollution from more than 19 chemical industries. The State Human Rights Commission and the Indian People’s Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights have observed that SIPCOT residents are already overburdened with pollution. They have recommended against setting up any more chemical industries in the area

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Despite massive public protest and the recommendations of various expert agencies, the Tamilnadu Government is planning to intensify pollution in and around SIPCOT. In the pipeline, are the following proposals:

1. Chemplast PVC factory and marine terminal, and desalination plant, Semmankuppam and Chitrapettai
2. 4000MW coal-fired thermal power plant, Naduthittu
3. A mega textile park, Periyapattu
4. A 6 million tones per annum petrochemical refinery by Nagarjuna, Thyagavelli
5. Effluents pumped into sea from Tiruppur textile dyeing units
6. Effluents pumped into sea from Ambur-Vaniyambadi leather tanneries
7. A shipbuilding yard

Poison in the air

Poisonous gases released into the air by some chemical units in the SIPCOT industrial estate in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, continue to endanger the lives and livelihoods of people in a number of villages in the absence of government action.

At the SIPCOT industrial estate in Cuddalore. Gases released by chemical units have severely affected the air quality in the area. ." Other Hazardous Air Pollutants found in SIPCOT air:

1,3-dimethyl benzene
Ethyl Benzene
Tribromometane
Naphthalene
p-xylene
Styrene

VILLAGES in the industrial area on the outskirts of Cuddalore town in Tamil Nadu are increasingly being identified more by pungent smells than their names - smells of rotten cabbage, burnt rubber, rotten egg, neem, detergent, human excreta, decomposing bodies, mosquito coils, rotting bones, decaying chikoo fruit, and nail polish. The smells come from toxic chemical compounds that are manufactured or released as effluents by the 18 companies in the industrial area and which have been damaging the environment and the health of more than 20,000 people in about 20 villages. Cuddalore, 25 km from Pondicherry, is part of an intricate network of estuaries, deltas, creeks, lagoons, salt-marshes, sanctuaries and coral reefs that serve as a natural breeding ground and habitat for various species of fish. This unique topography shelters and feeds lakhs of people through fishery and agriculture. Fringed by the sea and with fertile soil, Cuddalore is an idyllic 27 sq km town of verdant fields of sugarcane, groundnut and rice, and casuarina and coconut plantations.

In 1982, the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) set up of a 200-hectare industrial estate 8 km away from Cuddalore town, on the Cuddalore-Chidambaram coastal road. Financial incentives, uninterrupted power and water supply and an excellent communication network saw companies, big and small, setting up units to manufacture pesticides, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, plastics, dyes and textiles. The success of the first phase prompted SIPCOT to set up a second, 80-ha facility with, among others, a large polyvinylchloride (PVC) manufacturing and processing unit. Now 18 units operate in the SIPCOT estate, and four just outside it. One unit in the estate was closed on May 18 after an accident.

Ever since SIPCOT set up the estate, life for the thousands of people of Pachaiyankuppam, Thaikal, Thiyagavelli, Eachangadu, Kudikadu, Karaikadu, Sonnanchavadi, Sangolikuppam, Nellikupam and Pondiyankuppam villages has been one of dealing with hazardous effluents such as methanol, acetaldehyde, formic acid, ammonia, toulene, nitrobenzene, methyl mercaptan and vinyl acetate monomer. This chemical concoction has impaired seriously their lives and livelihood systems. The people complain of constant irritation in the eyes, nausea, acute dermatitis, muscle fatigue, and pink and frothy sputum, and have been diagnosed with changed reproductive health effects, narcosis and cyanosis. There has also been a substantial contamination of the water table, the air and the soil, leading to lowered farm production and dwindling fish catch. Many studies have reported that the industrial estate has altered the riverine ecosystem, even poisoned the river, affecting farm output and killing fish. This has affected the livelihoods of farmers and fisherfolk.

Groundwater situation

Potable groundwater, which was earlier available at less than 30 feet (nine metres), is now difficult to find even at 800 feet (244 m). The industrial units used borewells to tap groundwater for all their water requirements, amounting to more than 20 million litres a day. The local people, who depend on groundwater, say that the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) issued a circular last year advising banks to stop granting loans for agricultural pumpsets in order to stop the sinking of more borewells. But the industries continue to sink borewells, the people say. NEERI reports that the results are a conservative estimate as most of the industries were not operating to capacity on the days of sampling. "If all the industries in the study area function to the full capacity, it may be expected that concentrations of pollutants will increase three folds," NEERI says.

List of Chemicals Detected with Highest Levels Recorded

Name of Chemical	Highest Level (microgram/m3)	Location	Times above safe levels
Benzene	31.174	Asian Paints	125
Carbon tetrachloride	72	Tagros Chemicals	553
Chloroform	74	Shasun	881
Methylene Chloride	133	Tanfac	32.5
Trichloroethylene	24	Aurobindo Chemicals	21.8

Salinity

In 1994, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned of saline water intrusion in the area: "Since the aquifer in Cuddalore is close to the coast, there is a danger of sea water intrusion if there is severe depletion of its quantity without adequate recharge. Present data show the saline intrusion has already happened in the Cuddalore area." In fact, in Sangolikuppam village alone about 300 handpumps are not usable because of saline water ingress.

Chemical pollution

People report odorous (sewer, metal or aromatic substances), coloured water (yellow, red or black) that has an oily or burning taste - all indicating the presence of chemicals.

A 2003 report on Environment and Human Rights by the Indian People's Tribunal states that "all villages within or in the immediate vicinity of SIPCOT suffer from serious groundwater pollution. Handpumps between Thaikalthonithurai and Semmankuppam have been abandoned. A handpump behind one of the factories pumped out black water that smelled of sewageTetrachloroethylene
Toluene
Carbon disulphide

Dwindling fish catch

The fish catch has dropped by nearly 80 per cent and fish varieties have disappeared. This is largely attributed to the contamination of the river where fish-kills are apparently common. According to the local people, they no longer catch bottom-dwelling fish such as kezhangan, udupullati and irunpalathi.

Chemical park increases risk of cancer in cuddalore
People living in and around a special economic zone in Cuddalore are "2,000 times more" likely to be affected by cancer than the normal population, says a report prepared for the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. In a normal sample population, cancer occurs in one person in a million. But in and around the State Industries Promotion Corp of Tamil Nadu known as SIPCOT industrial park nearly 300 km south of Chennai, two in every thousand are likely to have cancer, say anti-pollution campaigners.

The Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) has prepared the report.

The study confirms the decades-old complaints by local residents that pollution from the chemical factories in the park is worst at night, especially in the village of Eachangadu.

The NEERI submitted the report in August 2007 to TNPCB without any public information. It came to light after an RTI plea by the local environment watchdog, Community Environment Monitoring (CEM).

The TNPCB commissioned the NEERI study in response to a 2004 report "Gas Trouble", released by the SIPCOT Area Community Environmental Monitors, highlighting the presence of at least 22 toxic gases in the air over SIPCOT.