Two workers fall to death from power plant chimney
July 26, 2014: Two workers from Bihar died after they fell off the chimney of a private power company at Karikuppam near Parangipettai on Saturday. Another worker, also from Bihar, suffered multiple fractures. Read media story...

Two migrant workers die after falling from a height of 400m
Cuddalore, July 26, 2014: Two migrant labourers from Bihar were killed today and four others severely injured after they fell from the chimney of an underconstruction private thermal power station at a village near here, police said. Read media story...

Coal impact on health to be debated today
CHENNAI, July 26, 2014: The city will host a meeting on Saturday to discuss the impact of coal on the environment and the health hazards the fuel poses. Read media story...

Medicos Roundtable Discusses Health Impacts of Coal Energy
Chennai, 26 July 2014: Public health experts and medical specialists met today to make visible the health costs of India's pursuit of coal as the energy option of choice. Read press release...

Cheyyur Project will harm local hydrology, study finds
14 July, 2014: The Cheyyur power project will damage water reserves, harm agriculture and interfere with local drainage routes leading to increased flooding in some areas and reduced rain water flow to vital irrigation tanks, according to a study titled "Hydrological Implications of the 4000 MW coal-fired Ultra Mega Power Project in Cheyyur, Tamil Nadu. Read press release...

Fire in SIPCOT unit, none injured
SIPCOT, 05 July 2014 A fire that broke out in a chemical unit in the SIPCOT Industrial Estate here caused panic among residents in the surrounding villages on Thursday. Read media story...

Fire in Pandian Chemicals; Major disaster averted
Cuddalore, 4 July 2013: A fire broke out in in Pandiyan Chemicals at semmankuppam village in SIPCOT Cuddalore today at about 12.30 pm. According to the eye witnesses approximately at 12.20 pm heavy smoke was noticed from the building near the boiler inside the plant premises. Read more...

Relocate Cheyyur UMPP: Eminent Scientists Tell Government
30 June, 2014 Thirty-nine scientists, including former vice-chairman of the National Knowledge Commission Padma Bhushan Prof. Pushp M. Bhargava, have urged the Tamil Nadu and Central governments to relocate the 4000 MW Cheyyur UMPP considering the ecologically sensitive nature of the current location. Read press release...

Poison in the air

ASHA KRISHNAKUMAR
in Cuddalore
Frontline
The Hindu
04 June, 2005

Poisonous gases released into the air by some chemical units in the SIPCOT industrial estate in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, continue to endanger the lives and livelihoods of people in a number of villages in the absence of government action.

At the SIPCOT industrial estate in Cuddalore. Gases released by chemical units have severely affected the air quality in the area.

VILLAGES in the industrial area on the outskirts of Cuddalore town in Tamil Nadu are increasingly being identified more by pungent smells than their names - smells of rotten cabbage, burnt rubber, rotten egg, neem, detergent, human excreta, decomposing bodies, mosquito coils, rotting bones, decaying chikoo fruit, and nail polish. The smells come from toxic chemical compounds that are manufactured or released as effluents by the 18 companies in the industrial area and which have been damaging the environment and the health of more than 20,000 people in about 20 villages. Read more...