CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has suo motu impleaded top corporate companies manufacturing edibles and other consumables in a case on banning single-use plastic products in the hill stations of the Nilgiris and Kodaikanal (in Dindigul district).
A special division bench of justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the order recently while hearing the petitions pertaining to forest-related issues, including single-use plastic and packaging materials causing damage to the environment and ecology.
The bench was referring to a status report filed by special government pleader T Seenivasan that mentioned about a meeting chaired by the secretary to the Environment, Climate Change and Forest department. The meeting had called upon the corporate firms – brand owners – to collect 100% of the plastic waste generated from their products and to come out with sustainable, eco-friendly packaging alternatives for the Nilgiris and Kodaikanal within three months.
“Therefore, it is just and necessary that these key directions are put to the leading brand manufacturers and any other brand manufacturers whose plastic wastes are reaching the Western Ghats, more specifically in the Nilgiris and Kodaikanal and their views have to be ascertained,” the bench said in the order.
Subsequently, it suo motu impleaded Hindustan Unilever, Nestle India, Hatsun Agro Product, Britania Industries, Cavinkare, Mondelez India Foods, Parle, Procter and Gamble, PepsiCo, and ITC and directed them to file their views on the issue by January 23, 2026.
It instructed legacy waste “cannot lay dumped” as the poisonous substances and pollutants will find ways to the water sources.