Ignored By The Media, Why Thousands Are Protesting Against Vedanta In Tamil Nadu

On March 24, thousands of people protested on the streets of Tuticorin. The immediate reason for such a large protest was the decision of Sterlite Copper, a unit of Vedanta to build one more copper smelter in Therkuveerapandiyapuram village in Tuticorin district to double the company’s total copper production in the region.

However, this was only the immediate and urgent trigger. There has been opposition to the plant by the residents, activists and others ever since the idea of a copper plant was notified to be built in 1993.

According to the residents living near the smelter, academics, activists, etc. the copper plant has been responsible for the poor health conditions of the people living nearby. And the creation of more plants will only worsen the current scenario.

Vedanta In Tuticorin

In 1996, Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper set up a copper smelter project right at the edge of Tuticorin town in Tamil Nadu. Currently, the plant has the potential to produce 4,38,000 tonnes of copper anodes on a yearly basis. But Vedanta’s ambitions don’t end here. The eventual plan is to make it into the world’s largest smelter.

It’s Not Just Tuticorin In Tamil Nadu

This is not the first time Vedanta has been at the receiving end of protests of such a grassroots movement. In Odisha’s Niyamgiri hills, indigenous tribals have been at the forefront of a movement to prevent Vedanta from expanding its bauxite mines. In 2013, the Supreme Court gave power to the villages which were affected by the bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hills to decide on whether the Vedanta should be allowed to mine the hills for bauxite. All of the 12 gram sabhas identified by the Odisha government for a referendum on the issue, unanimously went against the proposal of the company.

The battle is still going on with the Odisha government having tried to annul the results of the referendum by filing a petition in the Supreme Court, the Home Ministry discrediting Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (the organisation behind the resistance) by linking it to Maoists and an increase in the local resistance against any efforts by Vedanta.

Why Do So Many People Want The Plant To Be Shut Down?

Copper production inevitably leads to the creation of toxic byproducts such as sulphur oxides, lead and arsenic. This has severely impacted the residents living near the copper plant. Within a 10 kilometre radius of the plant, a population of over 4.6 lakh people exists in the 27 villages and the eight census towns which are located there.

A 2005 report by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute found out that there were high concentrations of cadmium, chlorides, arsenic, copper, lead and fluorides in a groundwater sample from the plant’s neighbourhood. This report had also been submitted to the Supreme Court.

A study had been done by the Tirunelveli Medical College in 2008, covering over 80,000 people living within 5-km-radius of the plant. According to the study, 13.9% of the people in the study were victims of respiratory diseases.

It must also be noted that during the time the study was conducted (in 2006 and 2007), the plant had only been producing between 70,000 and 1,70,000 tonnes of copper. Now, it can produce more than double of it.

According to a ground report done by Scroll, residents around the copper plant listed out how many of them suffer from respiratory diseases, wheezing, chest congestion, etc. One resident also pointed out that his mother’s cancer, which eventually resulted in her death was also due to the existence of the copper plant.

The residents of Tuticorin and Niyamgiri hills are not the only victims of Vedanta’s policies. Some people from Zambia are also suing one of Vedanta’s subsidiaries in courts in the United Kingdom for livelihood and environmental damage done.

How Political Parties Benefit From Vedanta

In 2014, the Delhi high court had discovered that both the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party had received a sum of ₹9 crore overall between financial years 2004-2010, violating the Foreign Contributions (Regulations) Act, 1976.

The political parties cannot be penalised or prosecuted anymore since a clause was introduced earlier this year in the amendment to the 2016 Finance Bill, which absolves political parties from having accepted foreign donations previously.

Bharatiya Janata Party received an overall ₹22.5 crore in donations from subsidiaries of Vedanta in the financial year which ended on March 31, 2014. On May 16, 2014, Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In the financial year of 2016-2017, corporations had donated ₹325.27 crore to political parties. The nexus between Indian political parties and large corporations have come under major scrutiny. Experts say that it prevents political parties from acting against corporations even if its policies impact the populace negatively since they are dependent on them for election funding.