The main road of Purwameer village is connected to open fields by a narrow path, lined with trees, plants and bushes. As the path ends, the field just ahead appears deep green, almost like moss. “It is all chromium,” says Vaibhav Gupta, who owns the land in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur Nagar district. “One night, a company truck came and dumped chromium waste in my fields before fleeing,” Gupta tells Down To Earth (DTE).
Gupta does not know where the dumper came from, or which company it belonged to. Nor does he know whether he will be able to remove the waste from his land. But the impacts are emerging. “Water extracted from this ground is starting to change colour,” he says.
Several other residents also tell DTE that since July this year, dumpers have arrived in the village in the middle of the night and released chromium-containing waste on the fields. On several occasions, they tried to chase the dumpers, but could not catch them. After multiple complaints from the village and nearby areas, the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) set up a five-member committee that has begun investigating the matter.
When DTE visited Purwameer in August 2026, the waste was still lying on the land. However, since then, all the waste is removed from the fields and sent to a disposal facility in Kanpur Dehat district, UPPCB Regional Officer Ajit Kumar Suman tells DTE. But the dumpers still arrive at night, residents claim.
Chromium is commonly used in steel-making, protective plating and as a dye. Certain chemical forms, specifically hexavalent chromium, can be toxic to humans and the environment. The International Agency for Research on Cancer places it in the highest category of carcinogenic substances for humans. It can cause nasal irritation and ulceration, hypersensitivity reactions and contact dermatitis, acute bronchitis and emphysema, liver and kidney disease, lung and skin cancer, internal bleeding and DNA damage, says a 2022 study published in the journal Bioengineered. While Purwameer’s tryst with chromium may have just begun, the wider Kanpur region has long struggled with environmental pollution due to chromium.
In 2005, UPPCB shut down six in dustrial units in Kanpur Dehat district for violation of the Hazardous Waste Management Rules, 1989. The units — Cerulian Chemicals, Waris Chemicals, Chandni Chemi cals, Amelia Textiles and Chemi cals, Hilgar Chemicals and Rukmani Chemicals — manufactured basic chrome sulphate, a dark green, water-soluble inorganic powder primarily used as a tanning agent in the leather industry. The units were openly accumulating large quantities of chromium waste in the village of Khan Chandpur, in the Rania industrial area.
In 2009, UPPCB wrote to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), noting that the units had been dumping chromium waste for around 15 years. The state board estimated the quantity of waste to be 45,000 tonnes. Subsequently, CPCB conducted its own ground investigations, which revealed that the waste contained hexavalent chromium that seeped into groundwater. More revelations showed the problem to be graver than realised.
For example, while initially six units were named, the number gradually rose to 11. UPPCB also increased the quantity of dumped chromium-containing waste to 89,526 tonnes in 2021.
Meanwhile, the case reached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2019, leading to investigations on the impacts of chromium in the affected areas and communities. Waste removal from Khan Chandpur began in December 2022, and by November 2023, some 89,526 tonnes of chromium waste had reached two treatment, storage and disposal facilities (TSDFS) in Kumbhi village. TSDFS are set up under the Hazardous and Other Wastes Rules, 2016, for treatment and stabilisation of hazardous waste. According to the NGT monitoring committee’s report of November 2023, the TSDFS had received the entire 89,526 tonnes of chromium waste from the Rania dump and 85,916 tonnes of waste had been disposed of in a landfill.
Khan Chandpur has a population of 1,400-1,500, and livelihoods depend mainly on agriculture. DTE visited the locations marked in CPCB documents for chromium contamination, and found green-coloured residue in the soil. Green-coloured water was also observed from handpumps marked by CPCB.
According to human rights activist Sanjay Yadav, based in Khan Chandpur, only contaminated water is available for irrigation and drinking. Yadav says the greatest risk of chromium contamination is found in hand pumps and India Mark II taps that draw water from depths of 12-30 metres, while water from borewells deeper than 120-150 metres appears clean. A water tank has been built in the village, but supply is irregular because of leakage and electricity problems.
Another resident, Govardhan, tells DTE that they stopped drinking the water a year ago but use it to wash utensils, and hands and feet. He has lesions on his hands, but does not go to health camps because he fears the diagnosis.
Yadav claims that despite deep excavation, 75-100 tonnes of chromium remain around the dump site. During the monsoon, water ac cumulates in the pits and flows to wards the village. The underground water also flows along a gradient towards the village, and so why the lower hand pumps remain contaminated. Devraj, another resident and farmer, agrees with this, stating that during monsoon, the contaminated water flows onto his field. The paddy crops then rot and turn yel low, and see reduced yield.
The contamination now seems to spread to Juriya village, 3-4 km from Khan Chandpur. Rohit, a resident of the village, says around two years ago he developed skin rashes, and doctors subsequently advised him to stop drinking the locally sourced water. He now boils the water or buys bottles, which has improved his condition.
In 2024, researchers with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi published a study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, which states that chromium concentrations in surface and groundwater around the waste dump exceeded 40 mg per litre. The Indian standard for the permissible limit of chromium in drinking water is 0.05 mg per litre. The maximum concentration of chromium in waste was 9.6 per cent by weight, while that in soil around the site was 3.83 per cent.
An earlier 2023 study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances examined samples of basic chrome sulphate waste from Khan Chandpur before the monsoon, and found that they contained total chromium concentrations ranging from 26,208 mg to 42,812 mg per kg at different depths. Of this, 215-516 mg per kg was “leachable chromium”. Even after the monsoon, the levels of both total and leachable chromium remained high. During both seasons, potential for chromium to leach increased with the depth of the dump.
Public health concerns due to chromium-contaminated water have also been raised at NGT. In 2024, Katyayni Chaubey, amicus curiae for the 2019 case, submitted a report noting that chromium con tamination is not limited to Kanpur Dehat but extends to the neighbouring Kanpur Nagar and Fatehpur districts as well. The report notes instances of residents across the districts reporting health challenges such as severe headaches, fever and respiratory conditions.
Chaubey’s report further found little to no facilities to test for heavy metals. It cites old reports of chromium and mercury being found in blood samples. The final recommendations include immediate medical camps and blood sampling for affected residents, along with mapping and identification of heavy metal (chromium and ash)-contaminated sites in the three districts.
According to an NGT order dated July 1, 2025, based on an affidavit filed by the Health Department on June 27, 2025, health camps and blood sampling were conducted in Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar and Fatehpur districts. Across the three districts, 9,147 people had under gone preliminary screening, but blood samples had been collected from only 6 per cent of them, or 572 people. The samples were taken on ly from people considered potential ly affected. The documents do not clearly specify which form of chromium was measured in the blood.
The NGT order also includes a report by the Kanpur Dehat District Magistrate from June 13, 2025, stating that all 29 samples collected in the district in October 2024 contained chromium, while 20 also had mercury levels above the prescribed standard. Of the 39 samples collected in March 2025, only two showed elevated chromium levels. One patient had a blood chromium level of 46.5 micrograms per litre, around 33 times higher than the reference range of 0.05 to 1.4 mi crograms per litre. This patient was given only a multivitamin.
In July 2026, All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi submitted a report to NGT raising concerns on the blood testing sys tem. According to AIIMS, information was available for a total of 569 blood samples, while reports for 55 samples were still pending at that time. The letter points out that results from different health camps were combined and the samples did not carry standard identification codes.
It was impossible to link a result to an individual, family or area. Among the people with elevated blood chromium levels, no specific complaints or illnesses were identified. However, local residents reported long-standing problems such as skin lesions, joint pain and stomach-related complaints. AIIMS could not rule out long-term effects.
The report recommended a more systematic investigation through a cluster-based survey of 1,200 families, with information and a blood sample collected from one adult and one child below five years of age from each selected family. It also proposed testing the water for chromium, mercury, lead and arsenic.
In April 2026, NGT approved Rs 2.655 crore for a cluster-based sur vey by IIT Kanpur. In July, the state informed NGT that the first phase of sampling was completed at contaminated sites in Kanpur Nagar and Kanpur Dehat. The treatment of contaminated soil and groundwater was still “in progress”.
New challenges are emerging. In Juriya village, for example, residents say a new tyre-processing factory is adding to environmental pollution. According to resident Vi jay Awasthi, a large amount of ash from the company blows through the area at night — if people sleep in the open, they wake up covered in ash. The hand pumps also release dirty, red and heavily sedimented water. The claims are yet to be in vestigated.
Ganga-adjacent districts of Uttar Pradesh contend with chromium waste for 5 decades
2005: Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) shuts six units making basic chrome sulphate for dumping chromium waste in Khan Chandpur village, Kanpur Dehat district
2009: UPPCB writes to the Central Pollution Control Board, stating that the units dumped chromium waste for 15 years. It estimates 45,000 tonnes of waste and asks units to share cost of disposal. Units do not agree
2019: National Green Tribunal (NGT) order notes hazardous-waste dumps in Rania and Rakhi Mandi since 1976. Eight units are imposed environmental compensation of Rs 280 crore. The levy is challenged and revised to Rs 87.7 crore for five units
2021: UPPCB revises number of units involved to 11 and quantity of chromium waste to 89,526 tonnes
2022: Chromium waste is removed from Khan Chandpur and sent to two treatment, storage and disposal facilities (TSDFs)
2023: NGT monitoring committee reports that the TSDFs have received all 89,526 tonnes of chromium waste from the Rania dump. Of this, 85,916 tonnes are disposed of in a landfill; post-stabilisation analysis is awaited for 3,651 tonnes.
2025: Waris Chemicals, which was fined Rs 25 crore, moves the Supreme Court. The court asks UPPCB to review and revise levy. NGT order notes results of blood sampling from Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat and Fatehpur districts
2026: NGT order approves Rs 2.655 crore for cluster-based survey. First phase is completed in Kanpur Nagar and Kanpur Dehat. Complaints of chromium-waste dumping emerge from Purwameer village, Kanpur Nagar.
This was first published in the upcoming 16-30 October, 2026 Print edition of Down To Earth