Just transition in petrochemicals: Bharuch’s industrial cluster is negatively impacting its ‘white gold’, cotton

The lives of people in many areas of Gujarat have become difficult due to petrochemical industries. At the same time, climate goals are being impacted due to pollution caused by these industries. This is the third part of the series. Read the first, second and fourth parts here, here and here.

The black soil of the Kanam Plain, located in Gujarat’s Bharuch district, is sprouting white gold in November. Now is when the high quality cotton for which this region is famous, appears in its full glory in the fields.

A group of women are picking cotton ‘bolls’ in the fields. Rakhi, 19, told this reporter that her group of migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh’s tribal-dominated Jhabua district reaches Bharuch usually in the first week of October. They work till February-March and after collecting their wages, start for home just before Holi.

These cotton fields are a major source of income for local farmers as well as migrant labourers. However, the expansion of chemical and petrochemical industrial units in Bharuch — with their smoke-spewing chimneys and chemical leaking into the air — threatens to damage these fields and the production of cotton.

There has been a whopping decline of 0.1 mha area under cotton cultivation in Gujarat during the past five years. Photo: Varsha Singh

Industrial units grow, farms shrink

Gujarat is one of the three major cotton-producing Indian states. The area sown with cotton has declined in the last five years, though it increased in 2022-23 compared to 2021-22.

Cotton was sown on 2.66 million hectares (mha) in 2018-19, 2.65 mha on 2019-20, 2.27 mha in 2020-21, 2.28 on 2021-22 and 2.54 mha on 2022-23. That is, there has been a whopping decline of 0.1 mha area under cotton cultivation in Gujarat during the past five years.

The cotton crop was not sowed on 0.37 mha in 2021-22, compared to 2018-19.

The year 2021 was when more than 18,000 farmers from 280 villages were affected by chemical leaks in Vagra, Amod, Bharuch, Jambusar and Karjan talukas of Bharuch district. 

Some 1,13,998 of 1,14,568 hectares sown with cotton, arhar (pigeon pea),vegetables and other crops were affected due to high levels of chemicals in the air. Apart from this, trees like almond, babool and neem were also affected by this pollution.

Chemical leak of 2021

Meghmani Organics Ltd, an industrial unit producing pesticides and weedicides (2,4-D and 2, 4-DB) in Vagra taluka, has been blamed for the leak of 2021.

Since the company did not take precautions, emissions during production caused the chemicals to spread with the wind.

All vegetation, including crops, were impacted as the chemical level increased in the air. The Khedut Samaj, a farmers’ organisation in the state, filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court in this matter.

Kaushik Patel. Photo: Varsha Singh

Kaushik Patel, general secretary of the organisation’s Bharuch district unit and a farmer from Bori village, is also among those affected. He said: “I grow cotton on 10 acres. We started noticing problems in the cotton crop from 2017 itself. In 2021, when farmers’ crops were affected on a large scale, we informed all the concerned departments including the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) and the local administration. It was a major damage inflicted on agriculture because of industrial pollution. We haven’t even been compensated yet.”

Farmers still feel the impact of the chemical leak. Patel noted: “Even today, when we try to grow moong dal (green gram), we do not get a bountiful harvest. The company has reduced its production, due to which our crops are still standing. However, if necessary steps are not taken, there will be no cotton left standing in the fields in the future. Toxic chemicals have also seeped into the soil, besides polluting the air.”

Industrial pressure is causing farmers to abandon agriculture, according to farmer Mahendrasinh Karmariya. Photo: Varsha Singh

Can farming survive?

Mahendrasinh Karmariya, a farmer from Deshar village in Walia taluka of Bharuch district and former president of the Gujarat Khedut Samaj, told this reporter: “Cotton, moong, arhar, castor and vegetable fields are now being replaced by industrial units. My family owns 50 acres of farmland. Government officials, alongwith those who want to set up industries, scout my village and others nearby for land.  They have set up offices. They do not talk directly to the farmers. But we are aware that our farms have been earmarked for lignite mining. ”

What has been the impact on farmers since chemicals and petrochemicals mushroomed in Bharuch? “Farmers thought that they would also have a stake in this development. But industry has only been a pretext to attack farmers. The sorry state and diminishing importance of farming means that the youth are abandoning their farmlands. Our family also does not want us to take up farming anymore, given the hard work and huge input costs involved,” said Karmariya.

Economically, farming is profitable for farmers and temporary jobs in industrial units pay much less. “My annual income from about 50 acres of farmland is around Rs 20 lakh. Still, my sons don’t want to farm. They want to be in regular jobs.”

Rizwan Mirza, a law student and environmental activist, said, “The youth in this region is in a dilemma. One can earn Rs 10-20,000 after training at Industrial Training Institutes. On the other hand, the income from traditional livelihoods is good. But there are also problems associated with them. So the youth is neither able to prepare themselves for the jobs in these companies, nor do they want to become farmers or fisherfolk.”

Farms are increasingly being replaced by industrial units in Bharuch district. In 1992-93, there were 666 registered industrial units. By 2021, their number increased to 11,500. With industrial expansion, chemicals, petrochemicals and textile units have developed prominently here. Special Economic Zones, Dahej Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) and industrial estates are being created and developed to provide basic facilities to industry.

The expert team conducting a probe into the 2021 chemical leak admitted that chemicals such as 2,4-D and 2,4-DB had been present in the air since 2012. This had been impacting crops. Photo: Varsha Singh

Environment, traditional professions and food safety at stake

MSH Sheikh, associated with the Centre for Brackish Water Research, an organisation working on farmers’ and fishes’ issues in south Gujarat, said: “Only 10 per cent of industry has developed in Dahej PCPIR. The entire area is being developed based on the needs of industry. Land is being acquired under The Special Investment Regions Act-2009 (This Act empowers the state government to make an area a special investment region). The youth of this area is now working as labourers in industrial units. Earlier, when there was no industry or pollution, their fishing business and farming was very good.

Many farmers in Bharuch are also approaching the courts, complaining of not getting adequate compensation for their lands being acquired for industrial purposes.

Many foreign industrial units have also been established in Bharuch district. “Labour and environmental regulations are very lax in our country. Therefore, chemical plants from many countries are being set up in Bharuch,” said Sheikh.

This is corroborated by the production capacity, production, import and export data of basic key petrochemical products such as synthetic fibres, polymers, synthetic rubber, synthetic detergents intermediates and performance plastics between FY 2014-15 and 2021-22.

The capacity increased from 17,213 in 2014-15 to to 21,415 in 2021-22. While production increased from 13,448 to 19,371. During this period, imports declined by 5,080 to 4,597 and exports by 2,254 to 2,505. (These figures are in thousand metric tonnes.) 

This shows that we are meeting the needs of other countries at the cost of our country’s environment and traditional livelihoods.

India was ranked last among 180 countries for the year 2022 in the annual Environmental Performance Index prepared by researchers from Yale and Columbia Universities. These rankings are decided on many other parameters including air pollution, standards related to water and sanitation, health and management of water sources, treatment of waste water, compliance with environmental rules, controlling corruption, and government performance.

The central government had reacted strongly to the ranking, termed the index’s methodology as ‘unscientific’ and ‘biased’.

The strength of the administrative machinery in getting units to comply with environmental standards can be gauged from the case filed in the wake of the chemical leak in Vagra taluka in 2021. The petition filed in the Gujarat High Court had stated that the expert team which inspected crop damage (including that of cotton) in the area, found that chemicals like 2-4-D and 2-4-dB had been present in the air since 2012. It based its conclusion on its previous years of study in the region.

This had affected crops in the area. The GPCB should have inquired into it. But it was not done. This makes it clear that the Board is working for industrial interests and not for sustainable development.

The petition also referred to GPCB’s allegation that farmers deliberately used pesticides and weedicides in their fields to damage crops. While the scientists of the Gujarat Agricultural University found in their investigation that not only fields but also the leaves of many trees in that area — including almond, babool and neem — have shrunk and dried up. GPCB only gave a show cause notice to the polluting unit. Such notices have been served on several occasions in the past, but they are not effective.

Farmers, fisherfolk and those in traditional livelihoods feel abandoned and helpless in an industrial economy. Photo: Varsha Singh

The interaction with many farmers, fisher folk and social workers of Bharuch district, including Mahendra Karmariya and Kaushik Patel, shows that these groups feel lonely, abandoned and helpless in the new industrial setup.

Passing through these villages after crossing the huge, state-of-the-art, illuminated buildings of chemical and petrochemical industries in Bharuch, one gets the feeling that not only are fish in the sea and crops in the fields being lost, but also a whole generation of fisher folk and farmers from the area.

This generation is backing out due to the crisis that ‘modernity’ has brought upon its traditional profession. Along with them, the art of fishing and the art of farming that understands the balance of soil, water and air are also being lost. This is not just a commercial but a cultural crisis. Conscious farmers like Mahendra Karmariya are also having to face this technological pressure and stress.

The impact on food security is obvious. A report on Gujarat by the International Food Policy Research Institute reveals this. In the report, a comparison of the data of the National Family Health Survey 2015-16 and 2019-20 shows that anemia has increased in children below five years of age, pregnant and other women in the state. In other health indicators, the situation in Gujarat is more serious than the country’s average.

This story is part of a fellowship granted by the Centre for Financial Accountability

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