Tanneries to pay up for ruining crops

The Loss of Ecology Authority for Tamil Nadu has asked 547 tanneries in Vellore district to pay Rs 2.91 crore as compensation to 1,180 farmers for damaging their crops between 1991and 1998 by polluting the river Palar. The authority on Monday issued individual notices to these tanneries to pay up.
Polluters of Palar may have continue paying such compensation to farmers, as the authority has the mandate to investigate and award compensation to Vellore district farmers for the subsequent 10-year period from 1999 as well.
The Loss of Ecology (Prevention & Payments of Compensation) Authority was set up in 1996 by the Central government based on a Supreme Court directive, while hearing a petition from the Vellore Citizens’ Welfare Forum against the rampant pollution caused by untreated effluents from tanneries.
In notices sent to the tanners, the authority’s member-secretary K Venkataraman asked them to pay the compensation amount to the Vellore district collector under the head Environment Protection Fund’ within 30 days of receiving the notice.
According to authority officials, effluents discharged by the 547 tanneries in seven taluks had damaged 1,150 hectares of land owned by 1,180 farmers. These farmers had been left out when three earlier instalments of compensation were awarded. In the first phase, the body had ordered compensation of Rs 26 crore to 29,193 farmers in 188 villages in which farming was affected in about 15,164 hectares. The compensation was for the loss of revenue through agriculture in 1991-98.
As thousands of farmers continued to petition the authority, the body awarded two more instalments of compensation amounting to Rs 1.88 crore and Rs 61.76 lakh to 1281 and 448 farmers respectively, officials said. From November 2009, the authority will begin inspection of the affected farmlands for awarding compensation for the next 10-year period, they added.
Asked about the farmers’ grievance that the compensation was less than the value of the actual damage, sources in the authority said there were four classes under which the compensation was awarded, depending on the TDS (totally dissolved solid) level. There is no compensation if the TDS level in the farm wells is below 1000 ppm (particles per million). For TDS ranging from 1000 to 2100, the farmers get a compensation of Rs 7,400 per ha.
The compensation is Rs 14,800 per ha for wells with TDS range between 2,100 and 3,500 ppm and Rs 48,100 per ha for those with TDS between 3,500 and 4,900 ppm. If the TDS level is above 4,900 ppm in a well, the farmer gets a compensation of Rs 1.03 lakh per hectare.
Despite the order by the Supreme Court to collect the compensation within a specified time frame, Vellore district officials admit that it takes time to get it from the polluters for distributing to farmers. “At present, 75% of compensation has been disbursed to the farmers,’’ said a district official.