A bird wallows in a water body covered with a thick layer of green algae and plastic waste near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Photo: Vikas Choudhary/CSE
Water

There is poison everywhere in this central UP district

Kanpur Dehat has for long been a dumping ground for tanneries, making its groundwater and soil extremely polluted

Vikas Choudhary

A water body in the Rania industrial area of Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur Dehat lies covered with a thick layer of green algae and plastic waste.

Kanpur Dehat is one of three central UP districts that are today bywords for industrial pollution.

The Rania industrial area has for long been the epicentre of pollution in the district of Kanpur Dehat. For decades, basic chrome sulphate sludge from leather tanneries and chemical units was dumped directly onto open land.

The Rania industrial area is the epicentre of Kanpur Dehat’s pollution. For decades, basic chrome sulphate sludge from leather tanneries and chemical units was dumped directly onto open land.

The industrial pollution in Kanpur Dehat is a symbol of the damage that this area of central UP has suffered due to what was and still is its main industry, tanneries.

The district, along with Kanpur Nagar and Fatehpur, also faces several other common environmental issues. These include choked drains, constructions on sites hazardously contaminated by chemicals, lack of clean drinking water, and the need for better medical infrastructure to address the health concerns of the residents.