VELLORE: The Organisation for Environment Protection and Social Development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), here, has appealed to the State government to implement the directions of the Supreme Court to prevent pollution from the tanneries in the State.
In a statement, secretary of the NGO A Asokan said that while the world was observing World Environment Day on June 5, it was time for the people of this State and the administrators to implement the directions issued by the Supreme Court while delivering the landmark judgment in the Vellore Citizen Welfare Forum case against the tanneries.
He said the apex court order included ensuring zero discharge of pollution from the industries by adopting suitable technologies and restoring the damaged ecology of the region.
Asokan said the tanneries claimed that some of the common effluent treatment plants in the district had achieved zero discharge of pollution, but the expensive technology was not being fully implemented by many tanneries. The compensation ordered to the affected farmers by the SC through the Loss of Ecology Authority should be fully paid to the beneficiaries. A thorough survey on the impact of pollution on the flora and fauna, Palar river and its environs should be undertaken by the State and necessary plans should be announced, he said.
The NGO’s secretary said the use of bio-metallurgy technology as proposed by professor Natarajan of Indian Institute of Technology, Bangalore should be taken up by the State on a war-footing. President of the Vellore District Environment Protection Association Jamuna Thiagarajan said the State should evolve a clear-cut policy on large-scale extraction of groundwater from riverbeds using deep bore- wells. Borewells sunk in and around Ambalur village near Vaniyambadi by civic bodies had depleted groundwater table badly and the State should stop further tapping of groundwater , she said.
Octogenarian social worker M M Basheer said the Forest Department should select local species of tree saplings for plantation in the catchments in Palar river basin under the National Afforestation Programme.