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Tannery effluents continue to pollute Palar

By P.V.V. Murthi

VELLORE Dec. 17. It is more than six years now since the Supreme Court directed closure of several tanneries in the State — most of them in Vellore district — which failed to comply with the court's repeated directions to install pollution control devices.

But tannery effluents continue to pollute the Palar. A visit to the affected areas in the villages near Ambur and Vaniyambadi showed how the farmers are suffering from a poor yield or loss of soil fertility on account of the damage caused by the pollution.

Janakiraman and Yasoda of Kommeswaram told members of the Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum and the Supreme Court advocate, M.C. Mehta, who successfully argued the forum's case in the apex court, that they could not drink underground water for the last several years. As paddy did not grow in their land, they had to depend solely on the ration rice supplied through fair price shops.

"What do you do for drinking water?" Chandran (70) of Ambur `B' Kasba, another affected area, was asked. "We buy water at Rs. 5 a pot." They did not get potable water even if they dug up to 30 feet, he said.

Chandrasekharan, a farmer of Somalapuram, said he had to spend nearly Rs. 200 a month on buying drinking water. As the milk yield of the cows had dwindled because of the polluted water they drank, many farmers were forced to give their cattle only water purchased from commercial sellers, he said.

The pollution has rendered agriculture impossible and most of the farmers are forced to work as labourers in the construction industry for meagre wages. M. Renu Gownder (62) of Somalapuram, whose four acres of land have been polluted, said that ironically, many farmers whose land was rendered uncultivable, were working as labourers in the very tanneries responsible for the pollution.

Farmers in the area complained that the tanneries were letting out untreated effluents directly into the Palar after 6 p.m. At Somalapuram and Marapattu, coloured effluents, letting out foul smell, are flowing in the river. The odour was most unbearable at Girisamudram, where the tanneries have dumped solid sludge in open pits.

Abdul Rahman, plant manager, Vaniyambadi Tannery Effluents Enviro Controls Limited, denied that tanneries were letting out untreated effluents. ``It was not possible.'' As for the disposal of the sludge, he said the Government was yet to allot a site for the tanneries and common effluent treatment plants for dumping the solid sludge.

The Vellore Collector, A.C. Mohandoss, said he had convened a meeting of tanners and the officials of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board next week.

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