The perils of pollution force people to beg for relocation from a once-green land

N. Lakshmi, 32, a housewife from Tadi village, located adjacent to the Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City (JNPC) industrial park, despondently wipes off the black sooty dust formed on the utensils she just washed and placed to dry in the backyard. “This is a regular day,” she adds, thinking back to the days before 2007, when the village air was clean, and the backyards were full of lush green vegetable plants. 

The village lands, nourished by the abundant supply of the Godavari river waters through the Yeluru canal, once produced vegetables like tomato, ladies’ finger, ridge and bottle gourd, which were in high demand in Visakhapatnam. Today, however, the much-loved Tadi-brand vegetables relished by Vizag-ites are no longer seen in the market, because of the severe industrial pollution that plagued the village. 

Tadi village in Parawada mandal stands as the only residential area under the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation limits, which is hit by severe industrial pollution, and the villagers demand they be shifted from there.
| Photo Credit:
V RAJU

The 80th ward of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), Tadi, is a coastal village in Parawada mandal in Anakapalli district, and is located 40 km from Visakhapatnam city in Andhra Pradesh. The greenery and serenity saw a drastic change in 2005 with the advent of industries in the JNPC, one of the largest industrial pharma parks in the country, 250 metres from it. About 30-40% of the companies here are from America, France, Japan, and Germany. 

Now, Tadi stands as the only residential area under the GVMC limits. Hit by severe industrial pollution, the villagers demand they be shifted from there in their numerous complaints to the A.P. Pollution Control Board. The government, acknowledging the plight of the villagers, announced an alternative relocation solution and assured the release of special funds to improve the villagers’ health and provide them with alternate livelihoods. 

Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, on April 28, 2022, at a public meeting held in Paidivada Agraharam, said that ₹56 crore would be released for the village within a week or 10 days. 

A. Adeep Raj, the present MLA from the Pendurthi Assembly Segment of the YSR Congress, says the process is underway. “The transfer process will be ready by the time of Sankranti in January 2024. We have identified an alternate site at Peda Mushidivada near Tadi.” 

Pharma hub 

Around 90 companies are currently active in this pharma hub, employing 32,000 people from different parts of the country, and another 10 are under construction. The total annual turnover of the is around ₹20,000 crore, and the products manufactured here have a market in 80 different countries. The Yeleru Canal is the main water source in the area. 

As a part of the JNPC are a 100 MW power plant, hazardous waste management plant (2 lakh tonnes per annum), water treatment plant, and other infrastructure to cater to the pharma industry. 

“Around 2,500 people in our village are reeling under severe pollution since the industries started operations one by one at JNPC from 2007 onwards. Initially, our villagers did not care about the pollution, but later they understood its ill effects. We have been campaigning against the pollution since 2008,” says Tadi villager M. Neelababu. He is also a former Parawada Mandal Praja Parishad member and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency Member from the opposition Telugu Desam Party. 

With their lands polluted, most of them stopped growing vegetables and turned into daily wage labourers, say the villagers of Tadi.
| Photo Credit:
V RAJU

There are about 1,000 houses in the village. People now go to nearby areas for daily wage work, and some have work outsourced to them at JNPC. Almost all of them stopped cultivation and agricultural work, as it has become difficult to grow anything with the pollution, villagers say. 

K. Appalaraju, 45, a daily wage labourer from the village, says his health deteriorated with the continuous exposure to polluted air and the lack of clean drinking water. “The water began to taste sour, so we avoid using it. Now we depend on private water tankers for our daily needs,” he says. “It is impossible to buy mineral water or an air purifier with my low income,” says Appalaraju. 

Lakshmi says every household in the village has someone suffering from health problems like colds, fever, and headaches. She also says that many senior citizens have kidney and nervous system problems. Some villagers working in the JNPC industries are often exposed to accidents at the workplaces, she adds. 

Industrial pollutants and monitoring

The JNPC houses major industries: pharmaceuticals, their intermediates, and chemicals. The major source of air pollution is boilers and fugitive emissions, according to the complaints of the villagers to the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB). 

Due to these industries, groundwater is also polluted, denying them the only safe drinking water source. Out of the 506 samples of treated wastewater from industries, 26 samples were rejected by the Pollution Control Board between January 2022 and September 2023. The rejection percentage for the last two years is 5% which needs improvement. If the treated wastewater does not meet the sea discharge standards, it is not allowed to be discharged into the sea and is sent back to Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP) for re-treatment until it meets the discharge standards.  

According to industry sources, 52 accidents, both major and minor, including furnace explosions and fire accidents, occurred in more than 16 different companies in the JNPC since 2011, in which 39 people lost their lives and 45 people were injured. Some of the victims belong to the village. 

“The government made a big mistake by leaving this village at the beginning, during the land acquisition for industries. The only solution for people’s safety is to shift them from here at the earliest,” says Ganisetti Satyanarayana, honorary president of the Pharma City Staff and Workers Union. 

APPCB Visakhapatnam Regional Environmental Engineer G. Nagi Reddy says the Board regularly monitors the general facilities and member industries of JNPC every six months to verify the compliance status. If violations are found during the inspection, the APPCB reviews the industries before the external advisory (task force) committee and, from time to time, issues directions to the industries to comply with the Board’s conditions. 

The Board issued a directive in August 2020 to all industries to avoid discharge of polluted stormwater into drains leading to contamination of nearby water bodies. The Board constituted a monitoring committee with members of industries, Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (APIIC), and APPCB to monitor industries to curb wastewater and air pollution at JNPC. The Board has constituted a Night Patrolling Team at the Zonal Office in Visakhapatnam to deal with complaints from people regarding pollution levels at night in JNPC. 

‘Not our responsibility

A top executive of the Ramky Group, the developer of JNPC, says, “We got land from APIIC for ₹4 lakh per acre in 2004 and developed this pharma park in 2005. Our role is to develop and efficiently manage the land in JNPC as per the agreement with APIIC. So, we are not connected to this issue.” 

An official from the Anakapalli District Revenue Department says that according to the previous surveys, 740 families had been identified for relocation during 2009-10. No more surveys were conducted after. Based on the old survey report, the government has identified about 70 acres of land in Peda Mushidivada, 8 km from Tadi, for rehabilitation. 

This may cost the government ₹100 to ₹150 crore, says a revenue official. The official opines that instead, at a 50 – 60 percent lesser cost, the government can build a special housing complex like the Jagananna Housing Layout exclusively for the Tadi villagers at an alternative location, a Peda Mushidivada.

After the villages are shifted, the government should take over the village land and develop it for other purposes like setting up industries, leasing out the land to interested industries and using a percentage of the leased amount for the welfare of Tadi villagers in the relocated place, the official says.

Since the elections are around the corner in the first quarter of 2024, we don’t know how the politicians will react to the demands of the villagers over the relocation of the village. It completely depends on the politicians, says the revenue official. 

Politics at play

According to Industries Department sources, the APIIC had acquired land (parts from people) in around nine villages, except Tadi, for the proposed ‘Black Gold Refinery’, a petroleum unit, during the 2000s. But the proposal was withdrawn. Later, the APIIC made an agreement with Ramky Group, and allotted 2,143 acres of land to it in 2004 at ₹4 lakh per acre price. In 2005, the then Chief Minister, the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, laid the foundation stone for the JNPC. 

According to the agreement between APIIC and Ramky, out of the 2,143 acres acquired, 1429.31 acres have been earmarked for the development of industrial plots and the remaining 713.69 acres for roads and general infrastructure. 

Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, former MLA of the Pendurthi Assembly segment (Tadi falls under this segment) says, “Our TDP government has worked sincerely for the relocation of Tadi village. Our leader, N. Chandrababu Naidu, is also committed to shifting the village and complying with the Rehabilitation & Resettlement (R&R) norms.” He says that ₹57.63 crore was promised for the R&R in December 2018, but the election code for the 2019 elections was implemented. “Our party lost the election. So, the government order gathered dust in the next government led by the YSR Congress Party. We will surely resume this once our party comes to power in 2024,” he claims. “Mr. Jagan made a promise to solve this at a public meeting in April 2022 and came to the JNPC on 16 October 2023 to launch another pharma company. But he didn’t have the time to ‘know’ the pollution problem here,” Murthy says. 

“None of the political parties or the Chief Ministers have bothered about the pollution issue. The MLAs and MPs who won from our village with about 1,200 votes have not been working seriously towards providing us with a peaceful life. We will give big credit to the leader who can solve our problem and will honour them forever,” says B. Govindaraju, who is leading the agitation for village relocation.