State Pollution Control Board ignorant of the fact as its office is located in Nizamabad district Though it has not assumed threatening proportions so far, pollution is one factor about which no one seems to be bothered in Adilabad, an environmental haven of a district in Telangana State. In this place, especially the district headquarters, the huge cottonseed and soyabean oil industry is causing unchecked water pollution and the State Pollution Control Board stays ignorant of the fact as its office is located in neighbouring Nizamabad district. There are about 25 cottonseed oil extraction units, three refineries in addition to two soyabean solvent plants which produce polluting effluents often released into water streams mainly the Chanda river near here. According to insiders, none of these industrial units have an effluent treatment plant installed or is not being used if installed in odd factory. Sources say the threat of pollution is more from the refineries and the solvent plants rather than the basic oil extraction units which dispose off almost all the polluting residual matter to detergent manufacturers. In the refineries and solvent plants, liquid effluents are produced which are released in nullahs and streams located close to the industries. In a cottonseed oil or soyabean refinery, effluents are produced following the refining process which includes bleaching, deodorisation and washing the oil with caustic soda. In the soyabean solvent factories, the seed flakes are treated with hexene, a petrochemical product, before being subjected to the process of refining. The effluent produced in the latter raises stink and is toxic, the effect being evident from the fact that no grass grows if the effluent is released on the ground. If released in water bodies, the effluents harm the fish, a case in point being the protest of the fishermen from Chanda (T), Belluri and other villages located on the banks of the river about six years ago when hundreds of fish died. There has been no study done so far to quantify the pollution being caused by the oil refineries or solvent plants. The contamination will in all probability be on the higher side assumed from the fact the units consume hundreds of tonnes of oilseed every day.