Kochi: The Kochi circuit bench of the National Green Tribunal has directed a team headed by a senior officer of the Central Pollution Control Board to inspect all the industries situated on the banks of river Periyar. It asked the team to inspect the sewage and the effluents generated as well as the feasibility of the effluent treatment plant and the effluents being discharged into the river.
Considering the precarious position of the river as a consequence of the lethargic attitude of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board as well as the disregard for the pollution control on the banks of the river, some drastic action has to be taken, the bench observed. The NGT bench headed by Justice M. Sasidharan Nambiar was considering a petition against Sree Sakthi Paper Mills filed by K.K. Muhammed Iqbal.
Iqbal argued that he is a resident of Eloor-Edayar industrial cluster, the 24th critically polluted industrial cluster as identified by the CPCB and an environmental activist. He argued that Eloor-Edayar industrial belt is spread over the territories of Eloor muncipality and Kadungalloor grama panchayat on either bank of the Eloor branch of Periyar which accommodates about 280 industries.
The applicant, as any other Kochiite, depends on the river for drinking and other water needs. Reckless discharge of industrial effluents into the river by the industries located on its banks makes Periyar water unfit for human use being contaminated by heavy metals and pesticides, he said.
