I wandered into reading on Tamil Nadu's Bhopal - or how Unilever dumped Mercury waste on Kodaikanal's pristine environment for 18 years.. and refuses to clean up even after it was forced to shut down its factory in the wake of the public uncovering of its dumped waste.
Kodaikanal is a hill station at 7000 feet on the Palani Hills in Tamil Nadu. It is part of the Shola eco system across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which itself is a part of the Western Ghats.
Its hills are always kissing the clouds resulting in a high amount of precipitation.. the trees are short due to high winds, and there are extensive grasslands.. which make this ecosystem unique.
Mercury is one of the most toxic elements known. Ponds moved its factory (later acquired by Unilever) to make mercury thermometers from New York to its present site in 1983 as the temperature was low year round.
Legislation on mercury handling in the U.S. had begun to change after toxic side effects began to be publicised. The Ponds India management got special permission from the Central government in India to set up at Kodaikanal on the grounds that it was a non-polluting glass manufacturing unit (!). No formal site selection or screening process was undertaken to assess and minimise the impact of a mercury thermometer plant in an eco-sensitive area.
The Tamil Nadu Factories Inspectorate and the Pollution Control Board found nothing amiss in their periodic inspections of the factory including on workers' health. In 2001, it was citizens - the Palani Hills Conservation Council and Greenpeace, which caught the management selling mercury-contaminated glass to a local scrap dealer. Faced with the evidence, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board asked the factory to close.
Kodaikanal is a hill station at 7000 feet on the Palani Hills in Tamil Nadu. It is part of the Shola eco system across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which itself is a part of the Western Ghats.
Its hills are always kissing the clouds resulting in a high amount of precipitation.. the trees are short due to high winds, and there are extensive grasslands.. which make this ecosystem unique.
Mercury is one of the most toxic elements known. Ponds moved its factory (later acquired by Unilever) to make mercury thermometers from New York to its present site in 1983 as the temperature was low year round.
Legislation on mercury handling in the U.S. had begun to change after toxic side effects began to be publicised. The Ponds India management got special permission from the Central government in India to set up at Kodaikanal on the grounds that it was a non-polluting glass manufacturing unit (!). No formal site selection or screening process was undertaken to assess and minimise the impact of a mercury thermometer plant in an eco-sensitive area.
The Tamil Nadu Factories Inspectorate and the Pollution Control Board found nothing amiss in their periodic inspections of the factory including on workers' health. In 2001, it was citizens - the Palani Hills Conservation Council and Greenpeace, which caught the management selling mercury-contaminated glass to a local scrap dealer. Faced with the evidence, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board asked the factory to close.
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