Coimbatore: Kemmarampalayam, the tiny picturesque village in the foothills of the Nilgiris, is now in the international spotlight, for the wrong reasons. The hamlet has come to be labelled “the world’s dustbin’’ as garbage from the UK and the US found its way into its farm wells.
Over 70 tonnes of garbage were dumped in two large agricultural wells in the village in May and June by a hired agency of the ITC Ltd, India’s leading paper board and specialty paper manufacturer.
The ITC, which has a factory in Thekkampatti village close to Kemmarampalayam, imports garbage from developed countries and hired the Hyderabad-based White Star Fibres to sort out the rubbish at its unit in the village. Truckloads of rubbish would arrive at the unit of the White Star Fibres almost every week where employees quietly sorted paper from other waste, which were then dumped in the clay pit on the factory premises. Trouble erupted over a year ago, when medical waste, plastic, sachets and other possible toxic waste began to pour into the sorting unit.
The Kemmarampalayam panchayat is said to have warned the factory not to bring in medical waste. And when the company dumped tonnes of garbage in two private farm wells this May and June, almost the entire village rose in protest. “We did not know they were going to dump plastic and other rubbish,’’ rues Thulasimani, wife of Ranganatha Gounder, on whose farmland the rubbish was unloaded.
As the villagers dug into the nauseating mound of rubbish, they found empty syringes, medicine bottles, used boots, discarded clothes etc. There was a public outcry, which forced the neighbouring Thekkampatti panchayat withdraw the industrial licence given to the ITC on July 10. On July 14, Kemmarampalayam revoked the industrial licence given to the White Star.
Almost all the rubbish has been cleared and is said to be lying at the ITC factory in Thekkampatti. ITC Kovai Unit vice president C A Nair gave an undertaking that “in future we shall ensure that such wastes are disposed of only in our own land’’. Now the over 6,000 people of Kemmarampalayam want to shake off its “world’s dustbin’’ image. “We will preserve the beauty of the village,” says panchayat president R Vellangiri firmly.
GARBAGE BLUES: The mound of waste in TN’s Kemmarampalayam village
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