Copper for Sterlite, cancer for people
An industrial unit becomes the focal point of agitations in Thoothukudi against pollution. The May 22 agitation and firing on anti-Sterlite protesters will go down in Tamil Nadu’s history as one of the most violent incidents of people-government interface
On May 22, 2018, the anger of locals over the pollution that industries in Thoothukudi were spewing reached a flashpoint. In the six days following the protest and police firing, the town remained on the boil. The district authorities are still trying to build confidence among the people. Twice shot, literally, the locals, who are mourning the death of 13 of their own, have begun to see the administration as adversaries.
The problem, though, goes back to the arrival of the Sipcot Industrial Estate over an area of 1,083 acres in 1994. It marked the beginning of a saga of struggle by the locals as the air over Thoothukudi was no more clean. Pollution levels started to go up and fishing, the mainstay of the town, was threatened.
A research paper published in the journal of the Geological Society of India’s July 2017 issue said numerous large- and small-scale industries in Thoothukudi had affected water quality by dumping effluents. It pointed out that the concentration of certain elements in groundwater exceeded the standard values prescribed by the WHO. It even named the polluting units, including Sterlite, Heavy Water Plant and Nila Sea Foods.
