Pollution by pharma companies around Hyd: Activists write to European Union
10 July, 2018: "The lives of many people living in India’s pharmaceutical manufacturing hubs, such as Hyderabad, have been blighted by rampant pollution," the letter states. Read more...

Thoothukudi Isn't Alone – Tamil Nadu Has Been Rising in Protest for Decades
Chennai, 18 June 2018: The Tamil Nadu Government has announced a ban on the use of plastics from January 1, 2019. This is a remarkable move aimed towards reducing the amount of plastic waste generated in the state. But is this enough to save the environment in the state? Read more...

llegal borewell dug to draw, sell water to industries sealed
PUDUCHERRY, 8 June, 2018: The Puducherry ground water authority (GWA) on Friday sealed borewell which was illegally dug in a private property and seized the pumps and motors with police protection from the owner of the small piece of land. The officials of the authority took the action based on the direction of lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi. Read more...

'Take action against industries for discharging effluent into storm water drain'
Cuddalore, 18 Sept, 2017: Sipcot area community environmental monitoring (SACEM) has lodged a complaint with the Tamil Nadu pollution control board (TNPCB), Cuddalore district collector and district environmental engineer to initiate action against industries that have discharged untreated effluents into storm water drain at the Sipcot industrial estate in the district. Read more...

Nagarjuna Oil Corporation's Cuddalore Refinery, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu, 15 October, 2017:Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Limited (NOCL) is developing a state-of-the-art crude oil refinery in Cuddalore in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The project is the single biggest investment being made in the Tamil Nadu region. Read more...

Illegal discharge of effluent reported from SIPCOT area
Cuddalore, September 15, 2017: SACEM monitors have reported illegal effluent discharge from Superchem (formerly known as Tamilnadu Pigments) into the storm water drainage canal in SIPCOT Area. Read more...

NGT directs TNPCB officer to inspect industry, to close unit if found violating norms
CUDDLORE, Aug 8, 2017: The National green tribunal has ordered the Tamil Nadu pollution control board's (TNPCB) environmental engineer (Cuddalore district) to inspect an industry in Sipcot industrial complex in Cuddalore district and take appropriate steps to shut it down if found that it has been operating without valid consent. Read more...

Pharma major's Cuddalore unit under NGT glare
CHENNAI, 7th August 2017: Pharmaceutical major Strides Shasun, which has secured the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval for its three plants in Puducherry and Cuddalore, is facing trouble. Read more...

Fear in villages over petrochemical project
CUDDALORE, August 6, 2017: "We are in no man's land and no one is bothered about us", said 50-year-old K. Sundaramoorthy, a farmer of Vallampadugai in Cuddalore district, where fears are mounting over a Central Government petrochemical project. Read more...

High Court orders notice on PCPIR
CUDDALORE, August 5, 2017: The Madras High Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre, Department of Chemicals and Petro Chemical, and Housing and Urban Development Department, on a public interest litigation. Read more...

PIL to quash government orders on delineating 45 villages
CHENNAI, 05th August 2017: A PIL has been filed in the Madras High Court to quash various orders of the State Housing and Urban Development Department delineating 45 villages in Cuddalore and Nagapattinam districts for inclusion under the proposed Policy Resolution for Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment regions (PCPIR) as "local planning areas". Read more...

Centre Planning To Make Revisions In Petrochem Industrial Region Policy
Tamil Nadu, July 31, 2017: The Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers is planning to revise the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Industrial Region (PCPIR) policy 2007 after three of the four PCPIRs failed to achieve the "desired success". Read more...

'Petrochem project will lead to mass migration'
CHENNAI, JULY 30, 2017: Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) president Thol. Thirumavalavan on Saturday said that his party would seek public views in Cuddalore and Nagapattinam districts with regard to the creation of the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR). Read more...

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...