Revoke consent to operate to HUL Kodaikanal factory, say activists

Company says all activities at the site being carried out as per guidelines and permissions issued by the NGT, the TNPCB and the CPCB

The State Department for Environment and Climate Change should direct the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to revoke the Consent to Operate (CTO) given to Hindustan Unilever for non-compliance with the order of the National Green Tribunal and operating the Kodaikanal thermometer factory without valid Hazardous Waste Authorisation, environmental activists have demanded.

In a letter to V. Meyyanathan, Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Youth Welfare and Sports Development, Nityanand Jayaraman of the Chennai Solidarity Group and Navroz Mody, member of the Local Area Environment Committee, Kodaikanal, requested the Tamil Nadu government to commission an extensive site assessment and ecological risk assessment study and prosecute HUL for offences under various environmental laws.

In the letter, they said the company was currently engaged in unauthorised decontamination of mercury-contaminated soil at its factory site. “The said operations are illegal as they are in violation of the order of the NGT. In the interest of a full-and-final cleanup, it is essential to ensure full compliance with the NGT’s orders and to satisfy oneself that the quality of the operations protect the interests of the State. Unsupervised, unauthorised and unscientific intervention will leave Tamil Nadu saddled with a legacy contaminated site like Bhopal,” they said.

HUL, however, refuted the allegations and said the soil remediation was being carried out after the NGT and the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for it. The company said all activities at the site were being carried out as per guidelines, applicable standards and permissions issued by the NGT, the TNPCB and the CPCB.

Enclosing a copy of the NGT order, the activists said HUL has been operating the plant since August 2020 without valid Hazardous Waste Authorisation. Two years since the [NGT] order, a detailed site assessment and ecological risk assessment — which should not take more than two months — has not yet been carried out, they said.

The company, however, said the study got delayed due to the nationwide lockdown because of COVID-19. “It is pertinent to mention that the study has two parts — one set of samples that need to be collected pre-monsoon and the second set to be collected post-monsoon. Hence, the claim that the study could be completed in less than two months, is incorrect,” HUL said.

“Excavated soil with high mercury concentration — a hazardous waste — has reportedly been stored in the open in violation of Consent to Operate issued by TNPCB. If this is the case, mercury is being made available for release into Pambar Shola and Kodaikanal Wildlife Sanctuary,” the activists said in the letter adding that the case of Sterlite [in Thoothukudi] was being repeated here as TNPCB remained a lax regulator.

HUL refuted the allegation and said that utmost care was being taken to prevent any release of soil outside of the factory boundary supported by the retaining walls and silt traps that have been set-up. “Any hazardous waste generated during remediation will be disposed of only after receiving the Hazardous Waste Authorisation”, the company said.