Not just skin-deep

OF LATE, some industrialists and
planners have started including environmental aspects on their agenda. The
Madras-based Central Leather Research
Institute (CLRI) has designed a Rs 150-
crore package to look into short- and
long-term measures to tackle environmental pollution caused by tanneries in
North Arcot district of Tamil Nadu.
Under the plan, a pipeline will be
laid from Vaniyampadi to a location
south of Mahabalipuram to carry water
treated to internationally approved
'marine standards' from the tanneries
into the sea.

The project will encompass all 22
common effluent treatment plants and
the 50 individual effluent treatment
plants in the area. These plants cover
about 550 tanneries located in the district. CLRI had constituted a task force to
look into the environmental problems
faced by the industry as both importers
and pollution control authorities pressurised them to adhere to international
environmental standards. According to
the acting director T Ramasami, CLRI,
being the largest such institute in the
world, would emerge as a "technology
resource capital of the world".