Effluents and toxic fumes from factories and refineries and high concentration of vehicles on roads, besides the Deonar dumping grounds (now partially closed) contribute to pollution in Chembur, one of the most polluted suburbs in the commercial capital of the country. A joint survey by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and IIT-Delhi conducted in December 2009 had placed Chembur on the top half of the list of 88 most polluted industrial clusters in the country.

‘Games organisers toeing company line'

There were fresh calls on Thursday for an independent inquiry into Dow Chemical's controversial sponsorship of the London Olympics after Meredith Alexander, a leading environmentalist, resigned from the Games' ethics committee — the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 — protesting against Dow's links with the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster and accusing the organisers of “toeing” the company's line.

KOCHI: Rising levels of pollution caused by plywood manufacturing units in Kuttippadam village in Perumbavoor is slowly forcing the residents of the area to abandon their homes in search of a healthier place to live. The once-serene and peaceful neighbourhood of Kuttippadam, a village at Vengola Panchayat of Perumbavoor, is now a nightmare for its residents owing to the toxic fumes and waste water expelled by the 30-odd plywood factories in the area.

Rahul Wadke

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has asked Mumbai Waste Management Ltd, a hazardous waste management company with a facility near Mumbai, to incinerate 10 tonnes of toxic waste from the Union Carbide's Bhopal plant.

The company is keen to dispose of the waste, provided the pollution control boards of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh give clearances.

SAMBALPUR: Even as the cause of death of saplings in Hirakud Command Area is being debated, former MP of Sambalpur, Bhabani Hota said extreme pollution levels in water and toxicity could be a reason. Hota told medipersons on Thursday that according to a study of Sambalpur University in the 90’s, massive toxic effluents were being released into the reservoir by industries upstream. These effluents had high content of lead and mercury which ultimately found their way into the agricultural fields through water discharged in the canal system, he added.

The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board has served showcause notices to more than 50 hospitals over the last few weeks for flushing out waste water, and liquid biomedical waste, without chemically treating them.

Highly toxic in nature, they can be a source of severe health hazard if not treated properly, according to experts.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, while permitting Sterlite Industries at Tuticorin to continue the operations at its copper plant, directed the company to file a fresh application before the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) for grant of consent to run the plant.

A Bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice H.L. Gokhale, in its interim order, asked the company to file the application for renewal of the consent within 15 days and asked the Board to make an enquiry in accordance with law and pass orders within a month thereafter.

Many protests, agitations and petitions later, the residents of Sukhdev Vihar – one of the most densely-populated residential colonies located next to the Okhla-Timarpur waste-to-energy incinerator – have a unique proposition for Delhi environment officials and politicians: “Come spend a day at our homes”.

“Every single environment official and politician claims that all is well at Sukhdev Vihar. How can they certify this when the residents here have consistently been telling them about the pollution levels because of the plant, the bio-medical waste incinerator and the compost plant. Together these plants have polluted the ground water, poisoned the air and forced us to live with constant noise pollution,” says Asha Arora, an area resident.