Farmers don't eat the rice they grow as it gets stale within hours of cooking; villagers blame Neyveli Lignite Corp for their predicament.
Neyveli farmers attribute the poor yield of pearl millet to the Neyveli Lignite Corporation's poor management of fly ash. (Laasya Shekhar/ South First)
A sense of deja vu overcame P Adithyan as he sat on the thinnai — or raised porch — of his century-old brick house at Aadhandarkolli village in Tamil Nadu’s Neyveli.
The house stands testimony to a once-thriving farming village that existed long before each gust of wind brought with it copious amounts of fly ash.
The odour is a reminder of uncertainty — a feeling of emptiness — that has been eating the minds of farmers like 29-year-old Adithyan.
Still, Adityan sat on the thinnai, hiring hands to harvest his 2.5 acres of pearl millet (bajra) farm next month. He looked like hope personified, as he gambled once again with adverse conditions brought in by the exploitation of natural resources.
For the farmers of Neyveli, the gamble is not as simple as rolling dice on a board for fun. It is a matter of life — and perhaps death.
Adithyan is mighty worried that he might incur losses like he did when he cultivated paddy. He had cultivated paddy on two acres, spending ₹33,400. When harvested, he got just 21 sacks (of 75 kg each) and more bales of hay.
Having cultivated pearl millet after two years, P Adithyan, a farmer from Neyveli is worried that the harvest would be poor. (Laasya Shekhar/ South First)
He sold the entire paddy for ₹27,234 at the government-regulated National Agricultural Market in Virudhachalam, incurring a loss of ₹6,166.
The young farmer had sown pearl millet two years ago, and pumped in money, hoping for a good harvest. “We did not harvest as the yield was visibly poor,” he told South First with a deadpan expression.
A turbulent, worried mind hid behind his nonchalance. He left the land barren for two years, before trying his luck once more this time, knowing well that it would be a gamble once again.
A decade ago, Adithyan’s family used to harvest more than 35 sacks of paddy from two acres. Bold, translucent, first-grade grains harvested in Neyveli had such a demand that the wholesale traders used to flock to the village to purchase the yield straight from the farmers. That was before the wind that made waves on paddy fields smelled like fly ash.
Today, paddy from Neyveli town is infamous for its poor quality and most of it is marked as second and third grades. The farmers know it too.
“We don’t eat the rice that we grow. The cooked rice goes stale in five hours,” S Paneerselvam, Adithyan’s father, let out a secret.
Neyveli Power Station-1 (expansion) project is around two km from Adithyan’s fields. The Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) of India Limited supplies water to the agriculture fields, including that of Adithyan.
Untreated hot water from the power stations and fly ash contaminated water irrigate the agricultural lands in Neyveli. (Laasya Shekhar/ South First)
Set up in 1956 after acquiring agricultural lands from the villagers, NLC operates three opencast lignite mines and four thermal power stations in Neyveli. The untreated hot water from the power station and fly ash contaminated water irrigate Adithyan’s land.
Farmers, scientists and even government bodies have blamed fly ash for the degradation of land and reduced yields.
The entire Cuddalore district, where Neyveli town is located, has been identified and declared as a mine-affected area by the District Mineral Foundation Trust (DMFT), Cuddalore, Union Minister of Mines, Coal and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi informed the Rajya Sabha in 2022.
Adithyan’s family had sold 20 acres to NLC on three occasions in the past 50 years for less than ₹10,000. The NLC, however, did not keep its promise of employing one of the family members.
Adithyan’s plight highlights two important issues faced by the farmers in Neyveli town: Poor yield and declining quality of the agricultural produce.
Set up in 1956 after acquiring agricultural lands from the villagers, Neyveli Lignite Corporation India Limited operates three opencast lignite mines and four thermal power stations in Neyveli. (Laasya Shekhar/ South First)
Farming flourished in these villages which were once blessed with abundant oothu thanni — or springs. But with agriculture not bringing profits and the NLC not providing employment benefits, farmers are faced with an uphill task.
Five farming families in Aadhandarkollai, Akilandagangapuram, Vadakuvellur and Ammeri told South First that the soil has become unfit to cultivate any crop due to contaminated water sources. Earlier, they used to cultivate paddy, pearl millet, sugarcane, sesame, and groundnut.
Tamil Nadu-based environmental organisation Poovulagin Nanbargal, and Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, a centre set up to research, analyse and monitor water and energy issues from the perspective of sustainable development, conducted a questionnaire-based survey, interviewing 101 individuals in seven villages. They had also conducted village-level focus group discussions in all these villages.
The respondents raised concerns over worsening water quality over the years, groundwater depletion and fly ash polluting the water sources. They released a detailed report in August, titled, ‘POWERing Pollution: The Environmental Impacts of Mining Operations and Thermal Power Stations in Neyveli and Parangipettai’.
Fly ash has visibly blanketed the agricultural lands. Streams and canals in the villages are contaminated with effluents from the NLC.
Punitha S, 45, a farmer from Ammeri village, said she harvested 15 sacks (of 100 kg each) of pearl millet from her 2.5 acres last season.
“I have been cultivating pearl millet for 30 years now. The quantity has come down drastically from 20 sacks to less than 10 sacks an acre,” she told South First.
Ammeri village had changed three locations in the past 50 years after NLC evicted the villagers to establish thermal power stations.
Showing the deposits of fly ash on his fields, Ramachandiran A, a 40-year-old farmer from Thoppalikuppam village, said that he barely harvests 10 sacks of pearl millet from one acre. “Two decades ago, we used to get more than 15 sacks an acre,” he rued.
Ramachandiran’s family sold two acres to NLC for ₹90,000 and a promise of employment to one of the family members. Ramachandiran who underwent training in 2006, never got the promised job. On the downside, the once fertile land is now covered with fly ash, resulting in reduced yield of crops, pushing the family down the economic ladder.
The indiscriminate dumping of fly ash in public places is a blatant violation of environmental rules. Fly ash, a pollutant with significant levels of mercury and arsenic among other chemicals, can be a resource material in brick and cement industries.
Farmers from Neyveli villages – S Punitha, A Ramachandiran, Shiva Kumar, Adithyan P and R Silmbai (from the top). (Laasya Shekhar/ South First)
According to a gazette notification, 1999, all thermal power plants should ensure 100 percent utilisation of fly ash in an eco-friendly manner.
Reiterating it in December 2021, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) issued another notification, saying non-compliant power plants will be imposed with an environmental compensation of ₹1,000 per tonne on unutilised ash.
“The industry should strictly comply with the conditions made in the environmental clearance and make sure even a small quantiy of fly ash is not disposed of outside the plant,” Nivit Yadav, Director, Industrial Pollution Unit, Centre for Science and Environment, said.
NLC authorities were not available for comment. NLC claims to be utilising 100 percent of fly ash in brick and cement manufacturing industries for the past five years.
“Even if we take NLC at its face value, it has not cleared the legacy ash from ash ponds and this can potentially lead to runoff to agricultural lands during rains,” Shripad Dharmadhikary of Manthan Adyayan Kendra, said.
“Seepage from ash ponds into groundwater, and air-borne ash that lands on water bodies are other ways of contaminating soil and groundwater. Apart from fly ash, effluents from power plants and mine discharges released directly into water bodies are also responsible for water contamination in the area” Dharmadhikary, who co-authored the ‘POWERing Pollution’ report, said.
Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board officials could not be reached despite repeated attempts.
The survey by Poovulagin Nanbargal and Manthan Adhyayan Kendra also established a direct connection between fly ash and poor agricultural yield.
Leaves are covered with fly ash from the Neyveli thermal power stations. (Laasya Shekhar/ South First)
The organisations undertook two rounds of water and soil sample tests this year. Samples were collected from surface water, groundwater, piped water and soil samples were collected from agricultural fields and fly ash.
“Several drinking water sources were found to be seriously contaminated with high levels of mercury, selenium and fluoride. In the first round of tests, out of 20 locations, samples from nine locations were found to be seriously contaminated and nine significantly contaminated,” the study stated.
“In the second round, out of 11 locations tested, samples from eight were seriously contaminated and two, significantly contaminated,” it added.
The Central Pollution Control Board has stated that mercury is the most toxic substance known to mankind. However, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has been remaining silent over the blatant environmental violations in Neyveli.
Soil samples from both locations were found to be contaminated, with high levels of nickel, zinc and copper, the study noted.
Fly ash affects the crop yield in three ways.
“Plants draw in toxic elements leaching out from fly ash in the air. Second, fly ash deposits on leaves affect photosynthesis, hampering the growth of the plant. When deposited on flowers, the process of flowering and seed formation is affected,” Dharmadhikary said, adding that fly ash deposits in the water affects the soil.
The NLC should step up its game by not just adhering to the law of the land but also by correcting the wrongdoings committed over half a century. The Union government should decommission Neyveli mines and power plants, Shiva Kumar, a farmer activist, demanded.
As the Tamil Nadu government is focusing on the uptake of renewable energy sources that includes setting up 20,000 MW of solar generation along with 10,000 MW of battery storage by 2030, decommissioning Neyveli power plants will not disrupt electricity services, the report mentioned.
May 21, 2024
May 19, 2024
May 18, 2024
May 17, 2024
May 17, 2024
May 17, 2024
