Legal issues

After activist SM Pon Gandhimathinathan sought a direction to remove the hazardous industrial waste of copper slag flooding the Upparu Odai, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on August 23, 2018, approved the removal as per due process. Later, on June 28, 2021, Gandhimathinathan himself obtained an interim order from Justice TS Sivagnanam seeking to restrain the slag removal from the Uppar Odai railway track as the activity was not in accordance with the order.

However, the court in an order dated February 4, 2022, did not stop the landowner Jawahar from selling the copper slag dumped in his farm in Meelavittan. In another order dated August 4, 2022, Justice GR Swaminathan observed, “The respondents – the Collector, the Superintendent of Police and the Deputy Director of Mines – shall not prevent or obstruct the removal and transportation of the copper slag.”

Subsequently, on October 20, 2022, one P Mani obtained an interim order to stop the removal of slag from Meelavittan and Uppar Odai river. Due to the conflicting orders and the CPCB guidelines allowing disposal of slag for sustainable purposes, landowners who previously wanted to remove the slag are now unable to remove it.

Speaking to TNIE, the owner of a land near Uppar Odai said he had also obtained a court order to remove the copper slag. “My land is a patta land and not part of Uppar Odai. I have constructed a retaining wall to prevent the slag from entering the water body. Therefore, the order obtained by the activist is unlikely to be applicable to my private land,” he said.

When contacted, a Vedanta official said, “Vedanta sold copper slag to the landowners on a factory sale basis between 2010 and 2016 to set up container yards, warehouses and timber yards under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Currently, Vedanta has no commitments regarding this copper slag as it has already been sold off. However, if the court and TNPCB allow the removal of the slag, we are ready to assist these private parties.”

Meanwhile, district collector G Laksmipathy was not available for comment.