Polluting units heap misery on Koppal farmers

Residents and farmers in and around Koppal have been protesting demanding that the government either shut down the 33 medium, large and ultra large factories or relocate the entire Koppal town, saying their health and livelihoods are being impacted.

Koppal: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s recent decision to halt Baldota Steel & Power Ltd’s Rs 54,000-crore steel plant near Koppal has come as a relief for the locals.

However, residents and farmers in and around Koppal have continued their protest demanding that the government either shut down the 33 medium, large and ultra large factories or relocate the entire Koppal town, saying their health and livelihoods are being impacted.

Hundreds of farmers in 25 villages in the seven-km radius of Koppal town are affected by 16 medium and 12 large and ultra large industries that produce steel, cement, fertiliser and industrial gases. Of them, 22 are categorised as red or highly polluting industries by the pollution control board. Effluents from these industries are damaging crops and are adversely impacting human and environmental health. Several residents complain of asthma, prolonged-cough, breathlessness, skin allergy, red-eye and others. Koppal district has 33 medium, large and ultra-large industries.

“As night sets in, the factories release harmful chemicals and fly ash without treating it. The black industrial soot settles on the crops, water and our houses. The air becomes so heavy that even breathing becomes difficult at times,” says Ravichandra of Hirebaganal village.

For the last 15 years, Ramesh Dambrahi of Kunkeri village has been working as a farm labourer as he is not able to cultivate on his seven acres of irrigated land. The fertile land is left fallow, as it is covered with fly ash and other harmful chemicals emitted by a sponge iron factory next to his farm.

“Until 2010, my family was harvesting bumper paddy crops. Ever since this factory started functioning, our yields started to reduce and now the entire land has become barren,” he says. He has tried cotton, groundnut, maize, sugarcane and mango, without success.

He receives anywhere between Rs 3,000 and Rs 8,000 an acre a year from the factory for the crop loss. This is nowhere near the income he would get from the farm. The only buyers for his land are the factory owners who have offered to buy it at a throwaway price.

Already troubled by the existing industries, the recent memorandum of understanding between three ultra-large companies, including Baldota during the Global Investors Meet has made citizens fear for their lives. Consequently, environmentalists, activists and religious heads protested when work on the Baldota plant commenced on 1,000 acres of land half a kilometre from the town.

Pollution Control Board officials say a large number of the 33 industries neither treat emissions nor scientifically dispose of the waste. “We have been receiving complaints of fly ash causing crop loss and health problems. We have sent a detailed report to the state pollution control board in this regard,” says Koppal Environment Officer Y S Harishankar.

He says the pollution control board has issued notices to 22 units for violations over the last one and a half years after a central team visited the area. Seven units were asked to provide reasons why their units should not be shut for violating rules. However, no further directions have been issued by central and state authorities, he says.

Activist Allamaprabhu Bettadur says harmful factories that are rejected elsewhere are being set up in the district.

The chief minister’s financial adviser Basavaraj Rayareddy, who is an MLA from Yelburga constituency in Koppal district, says Koppal needs agriculture and agro-based industries. “All harmful factories in Koppal should be shut, irrespective of who owns them.”

Repeated attempts to reach multiple industries failed to solicit any response.