Transparency is the solution to the Sterlite Copper issue at Thoothukudi, said environmental lawyer D.Nagasaila during an interactive session titled ‘The Sterlite story unplugged’, organised by the Chennai International Centre (CIC) at the Madras School of Economics.
“Are they (Sterlite) willing to come upfront with all the data? Will they provide details on the break-up of the content (copper) that they are importing and balance the equation,” she asked and said that she had sufficient data to prove that the company had not met the required standards. She also pointed out that the agitation at Thoothukudi did not happen overnight. “It has been building up over years,” she said.
Sterlite Copper’s chief executive officer P Ramnath, who gave a detailed presentation about the factory and data on various factors including pollution and health, said there was a lot of fake news doing the rounds. “People say that Thoothukudi has become the cancer capital of Tamil Nadu — this is false,” he said.
Citing reports from the Health department, he said, “Cancer prevalence in Thoothukudi is much below the State average. It is baseless and unscientific to link Sterlite’s operations with cancer. Chennai, Kancheepuram, Coimbatore, Kanniyakumari, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore are the top six districts with cancer cases.”
Emission within limits
Mr. Ramnath also said it was false to say that Sterlite was the cause of high sulphur dioxide levels in Thoothukudi.
“Our emissions are within the prescribed norms, constituting only 1% of the total industry-based emissions in Thoothukudi. Coal-based thermal power plants are the biggest source of sulphur dioxide emissions in Thoothukudi,” he added.
The lawyer countered his data and said that looking at district level statistics can be misleading. “You are looking at village level clusters. What it required is a proper health study of the villagers, which has been one of their main demands. There is a lot of difference between a health survey and a health camp,” Ms. Nagasaila said.
She highlighted that data does show high pollution levels in Thoothukudi due to the existence of the Sterlite Copper plant. Mr.Ramnath said that all these facts were debated extensively by the highest court of the land and there was no point bringing it up again.
