Sterlite Industries' copper smelter ignites toxic debate
TUTICORIN, April 9, 2013: - Housewife A. Puneeta was washing dishes on a foggy Saturday morning when suddenly her throat began to burn. Coughing hard and struggling to breathe, she rushed into the street to find her neighbours running, haphazardly, in panic. Read media story...

Vedanta group's Tuticorin copper plant ordered to be shut down
Chennai, March 31, 2013: The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) on Friday ordered closure of the Tuticorin copper smelting plant of Sterlite Industries, part of Vedanta Resources group, with immediate effect, and power supply to the plant has been cut off, a company official. Read media story...

Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board orders Sterlite plant closure
TUTICORIN, March 31, 2013: The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board on Saturday issued a closure notice to the controversy-dogged Sterlite copper smelting plant in Tuticorin, forcing it to shut down. Read media story...

Our plant adheres to highest safety standards: Sterlite
Tuticorin (TN), March 31, 2013: Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) on Saturday ordered closure of Sterlite Industries copper smelter unit here in the wake of alleged gas leak last week, but the company said it would convince authorities on safety measures installed. Read media story...

Sterlite Industries asked to close down Tuticorin plantAction after gas leak
Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu), March 30, 2013The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has asked the Vedanta Group firm Sterlite Industries India Ltd to close down its copper smelter plant in Tuticorin "immediately", following a recent leakage of toxic gas. Read media story...

For Sterlite, it's crisis situation once again
TUTICORIN, March 30, 2013:Tuticorin-based Sterlite Copper, which took its roots in the black cotton soil on the sprawling SIPCOT premises exactly two decades ago, has been once again placed in a situation not unfamiliar to it after it received closure orders from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board on Saturday. Read media story...

Requisite approvals were obtained, says Sterlite
TUTICORIN, March 30, 2013: Sterlite Industries (India) Limited on Saturday said it had been operating its copper smelter in Tuticorin for the last 17 years with requisite approvals and consent issued by regulatory authorities. Read media story...

TN government orders closure of Sterlite copper smelter
TUTICORIN, March 30, 2013: Mired in controversy in recent days, Sterlite Industries Limited's copper smelter in Tuticorin was shut down on Saturday. Read media story...

Sterlite employees seek revival of plant
TUTICORIN, March 30, 2013: A large number of employees and contract labourers of Sterlite Copper, Tuticorin approached the Pollution Control Board office in Sipcot area here on Saturday and submitted petition seeking revival of the company. Read media story...

Sterlite copper smelter plant in Tuticorin shut down following PCB closure notice
TUTICORIN, March 30, 2013: The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board on Saturday issued a closure notice to the controversy-dogged Sterlite Copper Smelting Unit in Tuticorin in southern Tamil Nadu, forcing it to shut down. Read media story...

Sterlite Copper Closed
30 March, 2013 -- The Tamil Nadu Government has relented to public pressure and shut down Sterlite Industries' copper complex today. According to a worker, officials from 10 government departments arrived by the vanload in the plant last night at 8 p.m. Read more...

Vaiko, other held as protesters try to besiege Sterlite plant
TUTICORIN, March 29, 2013: Protests against Sterlite Industries gathered momentum on Thursday, as large number of people attempted to besiege the plant in the wake of a suspected gas leak in the coastal Tuticorin town few days back. Read media story...

Vaiko arrested for attempting to lay siege to Sterlite
Tuticorin, March 28, 2013: Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) general secretary Vaiko and a group of people were arrested on Thursday after they attempted to lay siege to Sterlite Copper Plant in Tuticorin demanding its closure following alleged noxious gas leak, police said. Read media story...

Vaiko, Nallakkanu among hundreds arrested for protesting gas leak at Sterlite Copper smelter unit
Tuticorin, March 28, 2013: Hundreds of people including MDMK leader Vaiko and CPI leader Nallakkanu were arrested when they were on their way to Sterlite Copper smelter unit to picket it, demanding its closure following alleged noxious gas leak. Read media story...

Vaiko, others arrested for attempting to lay siege to Sterlite plant
TUTICORIN (TN), MAR 28: MDMK General Secretary Vaiko and a group of people were arrested today after they attempted to lay siege to Sterlite Copper Plant here demanding its closure following alleged noxious gas leak, police said. Read media story...

Thoothukudi Gears up For Major Showdown with Sterlite
27 March, 2013. Thoothukudi -- Residents of the coastal Tamilnadu town of Thoothukudi are gearing up for a major showdown with Sterlite on 28 March, less than a week after a massive gas leak injured hundreds of people for kilometres around the company's controversial copper smelter. Read more...

Opposition to textile dyeing waste water plant, villagers' petition to the Collector
Cuddalore, 27 March 2013: In Cuddalore distict's Periyappattu village of Parangippettai's panchayat union, a textile dyeing waste water treatment plant and other manufacturing units have been proposed to be installed. Read media story...

Demonstration expressing opposition to the private owned Thermal Power Plant
Pudhukuppam, 27 March 2013: A privately owned Thermal Power Plant is under construction in Pudhukuppam near Parangipettai. A pipeline is being laid in the adjacent coastal area for the above project. Read media story...

Industries fail to send waste to treatment plant: RTI
Solan, March 26, 2013: The State Pollution Control Board has been trying to underplay the issue of hazardous waste (HW) produced by various industrial units by furnishing figures which do not match those of the plant treating the waste. Read media story...

Sterlite Thoothukudy worker succumbs to gas leak, residents demand plant closure
Thoothukudy, March 25, 2013: One worker, reportedly a 35-year old man from Bihar, succumbs to effects of gas exposure following a poisonous gas leak from front of the Sterlite Copper Smelter on 23rd March 2013. Read more...

Noxious gas triggers scare in Thoothukudi
Thoothukudi, March 24, 2013: While Sterlite officials denied any chemical leakage from the factory, Thoothukudi Collector Ashish Kumar said a preliminary inquiry revealed that Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) had leaked from the Sterlite plant. Read media story...

Panic after gas leak in Tuticorin
TUTICORIN, March 24, 2013: Tension prevailed in Tuticorin city and surrounding villages as an unspecified gas allegedly leaked from some factories here, causing mild suffocation, sore throat and irritation to several people on Saturday morning. Read media story...

Tuticorin residents allege gas leak
TUTICORIN, March 24, 2013 Residents complained of asphyxiation following the alleged leakage of a noxious gas between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Saturday. Read media story...

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...