Citizens and farmers have strongly opposed the proposal for the establishment of a mega leather cluster in Tiruvannamalai, on the grounds of poor environmental track record of the tanneries in Tamil Nadu, especially in Vellore district, where the groundwater has been polluted beyond reversal in the tannery belt adjoining the Palar river in Ambur, Vaniyambadi and Ranipet, seriously affecting agriculture.

The news report, ‘Leather exports will touch target of $ 4.72 b: ITPO Executive Director,' appearing in The Hindu dated January 31, 2012, in which Neeraj Kumar Gupta, the Executive Director of the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation is quoted as stating that a “mega leather cluster was being planned in Tiruvannamalai on a 100-acre campus, that would have a plug-in facility on the lines of Chennai,” has caused shock among the citizens of Vellore district as well as the farmers of Tiruvannamalai district.

K.A. Sankarasivam, honorary president of the Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum (VCWF), whose petition in the Supreme Court resulted in the landmark judgment of the apex court on August 28, 1996, laying down the ‘precautionary principle' and the ‘polluter pays principle'aimed at reversal of the damage caused to the ecology and environment and determining the compensation payable to the individuals/families who have suffered from pollution, said that the environmental damage caused by the tanneries in Vellore district is too well-known, and the poor track record of the tanning industry in Vellore district is enough to demand the dropping of any proposal to set up a leather cluster in neighbouring Tiruvannamalai district, which would result in polluting the groundwater in that district, which has fertile lands........Read More

Source: The Hindu