Not just skin deep
OF LATE, some industrialists and planners have started including environmental aspects on their agenda. The Madras-based Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) has designed a Rs 150- crore package to look into short- and long-term measures to tackle environmental pollution caused by tanneries in North Arcot district of Tamil Nadu. Under the plan, a pipeline will be laid from Vaniyampadi to a location south of Mahabalipuram to carry water treated to internationally approved 'marine standards' from the tanneries into the sea.
The project will encompass all 22 common effluent treatment plants and the 50 individual effluent treatment plants in the area. These plants cover about 550 tanneries located in the district. CLRI had constituted a task force to look into the environmental problems faced by the industry as both importers and pollution control authorities pressurised them to adhere to international environmental standards. According to the acting director T Ramasami, CLRI, being the largest such institute in the world, would emerge as a "technology resource capital of the world".