The Week India – August 04, 2019

58 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

UTTAR PRADESH

LEATHER INDUSTRY

A

n overpowering smell of chemical and

contamination, made worse by the still

summer air, hangs over the riverside slum of

Budhiaghat in Kanpur.

“I will kill myself if anyone shows me one drop

of black water falling into the Ganga because of my

work. The river belongs to everyone,” says Kishwari,

a resident. The work she refers to falls under leather

trade—the district’s most famous industry that is

over a century old. More than seven months after

the government initiated a major clampdown,

prompted by the high levels of river pollution the

industry was creating, loss of livelihood has brought

misery of the kind never reported before.

While the industry involves a trade of many parts,

the government’s anti-pollution measure is focused

on tanning, which is the treatment and preparation

of raw hide for manufacturing. Tanning requires

large amounts of water and several chemicals,

the most significant of which is chromium. When

pumped back into rivers, it makes the water and soil

toxic and aquatic life unsustainable. In Kanpur’s

Jajmau area and its neighbouring district of Unnao,

where most of the state’s tanneries are sited, the

level of chromium in water has been persistently

found to be much higher than the acceptable limit

of 0.05mg/litre.

The ‘Status of Trace and Toxic Metals in Indian

Rivers’, a 2018 report of the water

resources ministry that cited the above

limit, notes: “It [chromium] can cause

allergic reactions, such as skin rash...

respiratory problems... lung cancer and

death.”

These concerns are not new. Yet,

the initial orders for the closure of

tanneries between December 15 and

March 15 were made to ensure clean

water in the river during the Kumbh

Mela at Prayagraj. This decision was

not peculiar to the Yogi Adityanath

Leather

bind

Closure of tanneries in

Kanpur brings environmental

and employment concerns

to a head

BY PUJA AWASTHI

UNCERTAINTY

LOOMS

A closed tannery

in Kanpur

PAWAN KUMAR