Gentle on critical pollution

Over a year ago, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) undertook an exercise to assess pollution levels in some of the highly polluted industrial areas of India. It then released a list of 43 most polluted areas, terming them critically polluted, and imposed a moratorium on their expansion. The aim of the whole effort was to identify areas that required urgent intervention and pollution abatement measures. The exercise proved futile as these areas remain highly polluted and have brought no change in the lives of people living near them.

Cry of a river

Indra Pal Singh fondly recalls drinking sweet water of the river Ami as a child. Elders of the village where Pal Singh grew up say the river gets it name from aam (mango) or amrit (nectar). Today, Pal Singh, pradhan of Adilapar village in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district, says the 136 km river has become a nuisance. A drain that carries untreated industrial effluent from the Gorakhpur Industrial Development Area (GIDA) has reduced it to a filthy water body. Residents of more than 100 habitations downstream of the drain often complain of colds, mystery fevers, nausea and high blood pressure. They find it hard to breathe at night as the stench from the drain rises with the increase in the volume of the wastewater. The residents say the effluent level rises by half a metre at sunset.

Waste manager dumps it in river

AFTER years of dilly-dallying, the pollution control board finally issued closure notice to Gujarat Enviro Protection Infrastructure Limited (GEPIL) on November 30. The Surat-based waste management company was caught disposing of hazardous waste into the Mindhola River flowing by the city.

Letters - December 31, 2011

Cautious Warning It appears that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has tightened its procedures in the hope of preventing errors in terms of the language used in its report (‘Future shock’, November 16-30, 2011).

Towards zero discharge

Tirupur dyeing units told to close

THE Madras High Court has ordered closure of more than 700 bleaching and dyeing units, and effluent treatment plants in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. On January 28, the court also asked the state government to disconnect electricity supply to the units in the hosiery town that failed to comply with its earlier order to achieve zero liquid discharge of effluents.

Mahad loses river, crops

DESPITE closure notices several industrial units are operating in Mahad tehsil of Raigad district, polluting a river and wells. As a result fishing and farming in the region have been badly affected.

Gutter will sparkle

Nirbhai Singh, an undertrial, wrote a letter from Ludhiana’s Central Jail five years ago and stirred industry and government into action. Addressed to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, the letter expressed concern over pollution in the city. The court then began to look into the state of environment, in particular the Buddha Nallah. The government took up the matter in earnest and as a result, Ludhiana now has a Rs 650 crore remedial action plan. It aims to treat all its wastewater by March 2012.

States asked to clean up

On january 13, the Union environment ministry imposed restrictions on new industries in critically polluted areas. The ministry had assessed 88 industrial areas across the country and identified 43 as critically polluted. Projects to set up new industries or to expand the existing ones in these areas have been put on hold till August 2010, after which the ministry will review the situation.

Factories poison Khed

In the first week of January, the Maharashtra state pollution control board ordered the shutdown of 27 chemicals factories in Khed taluka of Ratnagiri district. The factories from the Lote-Parshuram industrial area were found emptying untreated effluents into a rivulet that contaminated the reservoir downstream.