For many years, residents of Ennore and Manali in North Chennai have lived below the shadow of fertiliser vegetation, oil refineries, and coal-powered thermal vegetation alongside the coast. The presence of these “red-category” industries makes Tiruvallur district the State’s most polluted industrial cluster, which has left locals there to endure recurring gasoline leaks, oil spills, and layers of poisonous mud settling over fishing hamlets and working-class neighbourhoods.
Recurring industrial hazards
The disaster deepened in December 2023, when two main industrial accidents — an oil spill and a gas leak — as soon as once more uncovered the vulnerability of residents. In response, the Tamil Nadu authorities arrange the Manali Ennore Rejuvenation and Restoration Council (MERRC), which was just lately launched by the Minister for Atmosphere, Local weather Change. As per a authorities order issued in September 2024, the Council has been tasked with greening initiatives, desilting, waste administration, mangrove restoration, and air pollution management. However residents and consultants say these efforts fall brief. With out addressing the extreme well being issues that already plague communities, they warn, restoration will remain incomplete.
Poisonous on a regular basis publicity
For P. Vijayashanthi, a mom of two youngsters, who moved to Sathyavani Muthu Nagar in Ennore simply over a 12 months again, the consequences have been stark. “It’s horrible for newcomers like me. I developed a steady cough that docs linked to bronchial asthma. Once I go away this space, it improves. Once I return, the throat and cough issues begin once more,” she says.
She avoids letting her kids play outdoors and shuts home windows each time the air turns pungent. “If we go away our footwear outdoors in a single day, by morning, a layer of black mud covers them,” she provides.
Escalating well being disaster
A current report from the World Local weather and Well being Alliance (GCHA) flagged Ennore-Manali as a stark instance of how fossil gasoline operations devastate public health. The Cradle to Grave report warns that air pollution impacts human well being from foetal improvement to previous age. “Our waters are the guts of our tradition,” mentioned fisherman R. L. Srinivasan from Kattukuppam within the report. “However coal and oil refinery air pollution has poisoned them. Fishing is now not viable, and many people are abandoning generations of custom.”
Residents say water sources are badly contaminated. “After we dug borewells, the water seemed pale whitish, so we needed to shut them,” says Ms. Vijayashanthi. In Valluvar Nagar, Vadivukkarasi says, “Youngsters below 5 have respiration troubles. Docs say it’s as a result of we stay in an industrial space. Effluents within the water trigger diarrhoea.”
In line with the GCHA report, fossil gasoline air pollution is linked to bronchial asthma, heart problems, neurological problems, most cancers, and issues in childbirth. Many harms stay understudied, typically surfacing a long time later. At a public listening to in January 2024, residents raised issues about fertility and most cancers. Lalitha from V.O.C. Nagar mentioned: “I spent ₹3.5 lakhs on remedy. You’ll discover many households right here with out kids or with most cancers sufferers.” Little question these claims must be investigated totally by State companies.
Calls for for a health survey intensified after mud samples collected by locals in Could 2025 in Sathyavani Muthunagar confirmed dangerously excessive ranges of lead, uranium, cadmium, and fluoride. Nevertheless, no plans have been floated by the State authorities to hold out a well being survey.
For older residents within the space, decline has been lengthy and visual. “Within the Nineteen Seventies we fetched clear water two kilometres away. Even then my kids’s enamel turned yellow from fluoride. Now there are respiratory issues too,” says 69-year-old Ok. Devaki.
With out instant systemic interventions, together with well being surveys, medical entry, and environmental clean-up, Ennore dangers remaining a “sacrifice zone” the place livelihoods and dignity are traded for industrial development.
Shweta Narayan of the GCHA, co-author of the Cradle to Grave report, stresses that well being have to be addressed alongside the setting.
Prioritising well being
“Environmental restoration prevents future well being issues. However what concerning the folks already affected?” she asks. She requires parallel, sturdy well being infrastructure in closely industrialised areas, citing how residents in Cuddalore district have needed to pay out of pocket for remedy of allergic reactions and respiratory diseases brought on by untreated industrial effluents.
Soumya Swaminathan, chairperson of the M. S. Swaminathan Analysis Basis and former chief scientist of the World Well being Group, says interventions have to be multipronged. “A fast evaluation of well being wants is important to know the sorts of illnesses and points folks face, and to make entry to particular well being providers simpler. Psychological help should even be given, and residents ought to be consulted on how issues may be improved,” she provides.
Printed – September 28, 2025 11:00 am IST
