Fluoride mess grips new terrain

Growing fluoride levels in groundwater are setting alarms off in Tamil Nadu where potable water is scarce. A study says flouride contamination is spreading to new areas, 16 districts in all.
Studies have shown that the level of fluoride contamination in districts like Erode, Karur and Virudhunagar has been rising. Till a decade ago these districts were considered safe from flouride hazard.
World Health Organisation (WHO) has set 1.0 milligram/litre (mg/l) as the permissible limit for flouride in drinking water. In the absence of alternative source, it can go up to 1.5 mg/L, says WHO. “In Erode and Karur, where the Cauvery and its tributaries crisscross, the increase in fluoride levels could be due to industrial pollution,” says an engineer of the Water Resource Organisation, a wing of the PWD.
Available data with the State Ground and Surface Water Resources Centre reveals that the fluoride levels in open dug wells in Dharapuram taluk of Erode district and Sattur taluk in Virudhunagar district have gone beyond 2.0 mg/l. In many peizometres (borewells dug up to measure fluoride levels) in Karur, Tiruchy and Vellore, the fluoride levels were above 1.5 mg/l. Borewells in Sathyamangalam taluk in Erode district showed 2.0 mg/l.
Across the country, contaminants, including salinity, iron, fluoride and arsenic, have affected groundwater in over 200 districts spread across 19 states. In a survey by the Water Resources Ministry in 2008, results for which were released recently,
Tamil Nadu is ranked sixth among states. Here, the distribution of fluoride in groundwater has been found to be above permissible limit in as many as 16 districts. Rajasthan tops the list with 30 districts followed by Karnataka with 20, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh with 19 and Gujarat with 18 districts where fluoride distribution in groundwater is above permissible limit.
Children in the age group of 0 to 12 years are most prone to fluorosis as their body tissues are in a formative stage, say health experts. Statistics of public health department reveal that 31% of school children in Dindigul and Cuddalore suffer from dental fluorosis. “Mottling and colour change in teeth occurs due to fluorosis,” says Dr S Elango, director of public health. Long term exposure to fluoride has a crippling effect on bones and joints, he adds, emphasising that providing safe drinking water to the fluoride-hit habitations is the best solution.
“In about nine districts we have a few habitations with minor fluoride levels. Combined water system schemes have been implemented in districts like Salem, Namakkal and Erode to address the issue. It is a major issue in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts and we have a major plan to tackle it,’’ says Swaran Singh, CMD, Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board.
Another big worry for the state is the fast-depleting ground water. The Tamil Nadu water supply and drainage (TWAD) board has put 10 districts in the ‘black zone’ category, meaning that in these districts the rate of groundwater extraction had exceeded the replenishment rate.

Eco-activists accuse govt of giving into realty lobby

‘Disastrous’ is the word activists invoke. Environmental activists are unable to digest the fact that Kottivakkam, Palavakkam and Neelangarai areas have been reclassified under CRZ II. “The last bits of protection are gone. The state has capitulated to the real estate lobby again,” said Nithyanand Jayaram, a noted ecoactivist in the city.
“Now, it will be a free-for-all. The livelihood of fisherfolk is at stake and the habitat of the Olive Ridley turtle is in danger,” he said. He was unable to understand, he said, why the government which wanted fishermen to move to Chemmancheri inland, was to open up the coast for “elite development”. The fishermen were either pushed away from the sea or pushed closer to the sea, he said.
“The government has legalised most of the illegal constructions in the three villages, originally comprising sand dunes and fishing hamlets,” says Sudarshan Rodriquez, founder-trustee, Dakshin Foundation, which specialises in coastal resource management.
According to the 1991 CRZ notification, there should not be any construction until 200 metres from the high tide line (HTL) and only the dwelling units of fisherfolk are permitted between 200 and 500 metres from the HTL. But constructions have come up all over. Activists say a map of the city’s coastal areas from 1991 will extent the level of illegal construction.
“By reclassifying the stretch to CRZ II, the government has given in to an influential lobby. It will be interesting to know what justification the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) gave to the Government of India for getting the reclassification,” Rodriquez said.
“It is going to be disastrous,” said Akila, co-ordinator, Students Sea Turtle Network (SSTN). Already, the lights from houses close to the coast, garbage, and sewage have led to deterioration of the beaches where the turtles nest. The network is already fighting against the proposed elevated highway which could be destructive to their habitat. “The reclassification is the last straw on the camel’s back,” Akila said.

TN taps revenue land to improve forest cover

The state forest department has intensified the drive to identify patches of forest presently under the revenue department and reclassify them as reserve forests to improve the forest cover.
According to statistics, the state has 22,877 sqkm of forests, 17.59% of the state’s geographical area. The forest and tree cover together account for 22.04% of the total area as against 33.33% envisaged by the National Forest Policy, 1988.
“Wherever there are forest patches or green patches, the district forest officers (DFOs) send proposals to the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) to be settled as forests once and for all,” environment and forests secretary Debendranath Sarangi said on Friday.
Under Sections (4) and (16) of the Tamil Nadu Forest Act, 1882, the identified forest areas would be reclassified as revenue land and ultimately as reserved forests to prevent further encroachments, grazing and agriculture, he said. The task, he admitted, would be herculean as the forest and tree cover had to be increased by as much as 11%.
Towards this end, government poromboke land and revenue land were being reclassified and declared as reserved forests in Dharmapuri, Erode, Villupuram, Salem, Dindigul, Coimbatore and Theni districts. “Proposals are received from almost all the districts. Working in coordination with the revenue department, the forests tracts are being reclassified,” said Sarangi.
Citing the example of Kalrayan Hills in Villupuram district where the dense green cover was actually not forest land, he said the department had begun declaring it as reserve forest in stages. According to forest officials, thousands of hectares of land in the districts adjoining the western and eastern ghats were being reclassified to help protect drinking water sources for millions.
Although a policy decision has been taken to restore the character of the land which is forest, the field officers have a difficulty. “The government has set targets for revenue officials under the free two-acre land scheme for landless farmers and the revenue officials are hell bent on achieving the targets. As a result the process of restoring forests their natural character is delayed,” said a district
forest officer.

Eco authority survives on extensions

Any farmer with a complaint that his land has been rendered ineffective due to effluent discharge from an industry anywhere in Tamil Nadu can petition the Loss of Ecology Authority, specifically set up to investigate and award compensation to farmers affected by industrial pollution. However, the authority itself has a major
grievance and does not know where to file its own petition.
Set up by the Union environment and forests ministry, the Loss of Ecology (Prevention & Payment of Compensation) Authority, an institution unique to Tamil Nadu and one that charges no fee on petitioners, has been surviving on a yearly basis without getting permanent status.
“While the world is celebrating New Year’s eve, the authority staff will be waiting every year until midnight for a fax from the Union environment ministry to know if the body will continue to exist for one more year,’’ says a senior officer.
“The fax comes late in the night. Once, we had packed our files and vacated the rented space and were waiting outside when the fax came,’’ recalls the officer. That explains the reason the authority had shifted its office half-a-dozen times in a decade. Usually, the extensions are for a year. Twice, the extensions have come for six months, and once it got a threemonth breather. With a retired high court judge as chairman and five members and a few key officers, mostly on deputation from other government departments, the authority, engaging staff on a contract basis, has no permanency to it.
The Vellore Citizens Forum has even filed a writ petition to make the Loss of Ecology Authority a permanent body for Tamil Nadu by appointing a managing committee, chairperson and members. “It is the farmers who have received compensation who are giving life to the authority by petitioning the green bench of the Madras High Court for extensions,’’ says an official.
From November 2009, the Loss of Ecology Authority will have to begin field inspections to investigate and award compensation for crop damage in Vellore district due to effluent discharge from tanneries for the decade 1999 to 2008 but the term of the authority comes to a close on December 31, 2009.
“Again, we will have an anxious wait for the fax,” says a staff member. The authority’s job is to compute the compensation under two heads, for reversing the ecology damage and for payment to individuals. It has covered pollution in three river basins of Palar, Noyyal and Amaravathy and till now has awarded a compensation of Rs 65.4 crore to farmers who own 75,000 hectares of land. Official sources expect that the authority could be made part of the proposed green tribunal by the Union environment ministry.

Caught in a row, Jairam stays away from TN

With the ruling DMK, a key constituent of the UPA government, upping the ante on the Mullaperiyar dam issue, Union forests and environment minister Jairam Ramesh has decided to cancel his trip to the cool, scenic Singara hills in Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu,to inspect a possible site for the Indiabased Neutrino Observatory (INO).
Under pressure from the country’s top scientists, Ramesh had initially planned to visit Singara, in the periphery of Mudumalai tiger reserve in the first half of October, to personally survey the area and check if the setting up of the Rs 917 crore advanced underground laboratory for particle physicists would damage environment and wildlife.
The minister’s decision to cancel his Tamil Nadu visit could have much to do with his political discomfort caused by the controversy over the Mullaperiyar dam issue. A few weeks back, the standing committee of national board for wildlife, presided over by Jairam Ramesh gave the nod for the Kerala government to conduct a survey in Periyar tiger reserve where the Mullaperiyar dam is located.
Despite the Tamil Nadu government’s protests, Ramesh stood his ground claiming that the “narrow, technical approval” granted under the Forest Conservation Act would in no way come in the way of the legal dispute over the issue. Sensing that the TN sentiments were not in his favour, the Union environment minister has now decided to cancel his Singara visit. Jairam told TOI that he would be sending Rajesh Gopal,member secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority, instead to discuss the issue with state officials.
On Thursday, MDMK general secretary Vaiko flayed Ramesh for interfering with the state’s rights particularly when the government here had not yet given permission for the location.

Pitchavaram farmers keen to conserve mangrove

A unique model weaving in bio-shields and ensuring livelihood security of the locals has been fashioned in the backwaters of the picturesque Pitchavaram. The village is famous for its mangroves, which are said to have acted as an effective shield against the Dec 2004 tsunami.
For the past decade and half, the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) had been trying hard to rope in the Pitchavaram locals in raising mangrove plantations, but without much success. Seeing no livelihood prospects, the villagers were not exactly thrilled with the project.
But after the giant tsunami waves failed to find chinks through the mangroves thus sparing the village from its onslaught, the scientific community noticed a palpable change in the attitude of the local community.
Fishing communities, usually reluctant to participate in mangrove plantation, have now begun to show interest in restoring and conserving mangrove and non-mangrove bioshields. “We have also devised a brackish water farming system to integrate mangroves plantation and culture of fish and crabs. The latter would provide them with a livelihood as well,’’ said Dr V Selvam, director, MSSRF. In the new model, a series of bunds are formed along a stretch of plantation with brackish water in between. At the edge of the bunds, mangrove plantation was taken up and in between, halophytes were grown as cash crops (used by fisher folk for seasoning their fish curries), he said.
At present, MSSRF has tied up with a private farm that has earned a sizable profit of Rs 30,000 in four months by farming fish and crabs in a 0.7-acre farm. “Fisheries department can make use of the system through self-help groups in its unused farms as the state has about 30,000 ha of saline affected land in the coastal districts,’’ Dr
Selvam noted.
The farms need no artificial seeds, no chemicals and no energy as required in prawn farms. A tidal outlet ensures there is at least 3 feet of standing water in the farm. Various species could be used for mangrove and halophytes.

Project to fight brown cloud phenomenon

For long, pollution from rural households due to burning of firewood, coal and dung was considered chronically harmful to people, affecting their lungs. Few realised that all the biofuel cooking and biomass burning would contribute to atmospheric brown clouds (ABC), India’s latest environment concern.
Climate, energy and health scientists from around the world will be joining hands on Monday, December 1, to launch Project Surya which hopes to reduce air pollution caused by soot due to cooking with renewable sources that adds to the brown cloud phenomenon.
ABCs are plumes of air pollution that consist of copious amounts of tiny particles of soot, sulphates, nitrates, fly ash and many other pollutants. ABC-induced atmospheric solar heating and surface dimming are large over Asia in general and over India and China, in particular, according to studies conducted by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) last month.
Scientists of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Sri Ramachandra University (SRMC), California Institute for Telecommunications and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) will be working on a group of villages spread over about 100 km in Uttar Pradesh in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, one of the ABC regional hotspots in the world, and some hamlets in Tamil Nadu, with lower levels of emissions.
“Surya is Sun or Solar in Sanskrit. So we have named the project Surya,” said Prof Kalpana Balakrishnan, HoD, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, SRMC. While she and her colleagues will be documenting the health impact on women and children due to cooking with renewable sources, energy scientists will be finding ways to improve the efficiency of renewable sources. Satellites will be tracking elemental carbon in the soot within the radius.