Photos: Residents in India’s Kerala state try to save a river

Eloor smells like he’s dying.

Once an island with rich farmland on the Periyar River, 17 km (10.5 mi) from the Arabian Sea, it teems with fish. Now there is a putrid stench in the air. Most of the fish are gone. In fact, local residents say that people who live near the river have almost stopped having children.

But here is Shaji, alone in his little fiber boat, fishing with his handmade fishing rod, the huge industrial chimneys of the South Indian state of Kerala behind him.

About 300 chemical companies spewed out dense fumes and the river water has turned dark. Shaji, a fisherman in his late 40s who goes by only one name, is one of the few people left.

“Most people here are trying to migrate from this place. Looking at the streets, it’s almost empty. There are no jobs, and now we can’t even find work on the river,” said Shaji, showing off the few pearlfish he caught for a full day in March.

Many of the petrochemical plants here are more than five decades old. They produce pesticides, rare earths, rubber processing chemicals, fertilizers, zinc-chromium products and leather treatments.

Some are government owned, including Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore, Indian Rare Earths Ltd and Hindustan Insecticides Ltd.

Residents say the industries take large amounts of fresh water from the Periyar and discharge concentrated wastewater without any treatment.

Anwar CI, who uses initials before his surname as is customary in South India, is a member of a Periyar anti-pollution committee and a private contractor living in the area. He said residents have become accustomed to the stench that hangs over the area like a heavy curtain.

Groundwater is now completely polluted and the government’s claim that the companies benefit the people is false, he said.

“If they claim to provide employment to many people through industrialization, the net impact is that the livelihoods of thousands will be lost,” Anwar said. “People cannot live on ruined land and water.”

Residents have periodically protested against the factories. The demonstrations began in 1970 when the village first witnessed the death of thousands of fish. Both die-offs and protests happened many times after that, said Shabeer Mooppan, a longtime resident who has demonstrated many times.

Some of the early protest leaders are now elderly and bedridden, Mooppan said, highlighting how long people in the community have been trying to get the river clean.

Now Mooppan is trying to improve surveillance, to catch those responsible for polluting the river. It is a method used for rivers and bays in other cities around the world. He also pursues lawsuits against polluting industries.

The State Pollution Control Board has downplayed industrial pollution in the Periyar River, blaming sewage from homes, commercial establishments and markets upstream.

“We have not found an alarming amount of metals in the river water,” said Baburajan PK, the council’s chief environmental engineer. “All levels are within limits.”

Baburajan said only five major companies of the region’s more than 300 industrial plants are allowed to discharge wastewater into the river and it needs to be treated. The rest have to purify their waste water, reuse it or dispose of it on their own land. He said hefty environmental taxes have been imposed on offenders.

But research tells a story of a river in distress.

As early as 1998, scientists at the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies found that about 25 fish species had disappeared from the region. Experts have found infections in vegetables, chicken, eggs, fruit and root vegetables.

Chandramohan Kumar, a professor of chemical oceanography at Cochin University of Science and Technology, has investigated the pollution of the Periyar River in several studies.

“We observed pollution from various organic fertilizers, metal components,” Kumar said. “Toxic metals such as cadmium, copper, zinc and all heavy metals can be detected there.”

India has an environmental court, the National Green Tribunal. Ten years ago, it ordered the government to prepare an action plan to restore water quality in the river to protect the environment and public health. It also recommended the establishment of a monitoring committee.

More recently, the tribunal was concerned enough to start its own proceedings over the pollution. It cited studies dating back to 2005 conducted by the environmental non-profit organization Thanal which found that “hundreds of people living near Kuzhikandam Creek near Eloor suffered from various diseases such as cancer, congenital birth defects, bronchitis, asthma, allergic dermatitis, nervous disorders and behavioral changes.”

The court cited another investigation of 327 families in the region that found that hazardous chemicals — including DDT, hexachlorocyclohexane, cadmium, copper, mercury, lead, toluene, manganese and nickel — had been discharged into Kuzhikandam Creek and endangered the health of people in Eloor. harmed.

Kumar said the cure for this pollution is on-site treatment in every facility, which amounts to money. “If they are willing to invest, the wastewater discharge can be solved,” he said.

The Pollution Control Board said it had recently begun an investigation that could lead to curbing air pollution and reducing the area’s intolerable stench largely caused by bonemeal fertilizer plants and meatpacking plants. The study is expected to be completed in May.