Chennai, Sept. 4: The textile plants of Tirupur, Erode and Karur in western Tamil Nadu may have earned thousands of crores of rupees in foreign exchange, but their impact on the environment has been equally dismal.
The knitwear hub of Tirupur alone has been using one lakh tonnes of salt a year for dyeing and a study has pointed out that the effluents had affected more than 10,000 acres of fertile land along the Noyyal River.
While the farmers are waging a futile battle to get compensation, the state planning commission has come out with a proposal to reclaim the land by planting saplings of Casuarina, which can withstand high saline content besides going in for natural dye plants such as indigofera tinctoria.
During the recent conference of district collectors chief minister M. Karunanidhi, directed officials to work out the plan with the farmers’ cooperation.
“We have identified 5.5 acre land along the Noyyal River in Kangeyam taluk and will be planting natural dye (indigofera) saplings and casuarinas on a pilot basis,” the Tirupur Collector, Mr C. Samayamoorthy, told DC. The district administration is also planning to set up a natural dye extraction plant since it would not require huge investment or technology. “We are planning to give incentive to the farmers (`5,000 per acre) to take up the cultivation,” the collector added.
Planning commission member and retired IFS officer G. Kumaravelu, who mooted the proposal, said it would help farmers gain more income.
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