CHENNAI: A high-level joint expert committee, constituted by the southern bench of National Green Tribunal, has sounded the alarm over large-scale degradation of critical ecology in the Ennore region in Tamil Nadu due to polluting industries, including power plants.
In its 466-page report, the nine-member committee, headed by former IAS officer Santha Sheela Nair, has made scathing remarks on how fly ash pollution is wreaking havoc in the lives of locals, besides damaging the environment.
Land-use changes in 905 hectares between 1996 and 2022 were studied for the report. In the 905 ha alone, the report said, area under natural wetlands fell by a whopping 68%.
Using time series maps as well as delineated fly ash maps with satellite and UAV data, which were specially obtained for the study, it was observed that in 1996 the salt pans (553.37 ha) and water bodies (233.60 ha) covered a major part of the site with no visible deposits of fly ash in the area.
However, official data show that the area of salt pans reduced to 95.55 ha in 2022, waterbodies shrank to 148.69 ha, and the area under mangroves vegetation fell from 68.72 ha in 1996 to 33.74 ha now.
Overall, area under wetlands dwindled from 855.69 ha in 1996 to 277.92 ha in 2022.
In the same period, area under built-up land increased from nil to 259.87 ha and area covered by fly ash increased from nil to 260.28 ha. The report comes ahead of the public hearing for a 660 MW Ennore Thermal Power Plant expansion project on April 12.
When contacted, a senior Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) official accepted there were occasional leaks from the plant’s fly ash pipelines but remediation works were being done as per NGT orders.