“The blackberry trees have rotten away.” From Tamil Nadu, a story of toxic waste clogging a lake that feeds the country’s oldest bird sanctuary… But how many have heard about the crisis in Vedanthangal?
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00This tree on the side of the road is the fruit of the Naavu tree.
00:30They say that a while ago the place would be carpeted with birds and the fields would
00:35have a lot of bird droppings which are an important fertilizer.
01:00First I read about Vedanagal in various media reports when I spoke to a couple of activists
01:15or reporters, local stringers who are there, that's when I came to know there are serious
01:26allegations which warrant close inspection.
01:56It's a 70-80 year old tree which has become old on its own.
02:26I have seen Sun Pharma discharging the untreated industrial effluents on multiple occasions
02:55during my visit.
02:56There's a ditch-like structure, channel surrounding the compound wall, the building, the facility
03:06there, which directly enters the Pudupattavalli opposite to that.
03:25Which means that the factory's pollution is reaching the water bodies outside.
03:35This kind of confirms the allegations of local villages.
04:26Otherwise it's quite likely that the birds may abandon the nesting site forever.
04:32And that would be a shame.