HEAVY METAL : How A Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal
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- New Delhi Macmillan 2023/01/01
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The ultimate investigative account of a global corporations hand in the unchecked mercury poisoning of one of Indias most biodiverse regions which affected over six hundred people and caused irrevocable damage to the ecosystem.
In March 2001, the discovery of a massive quantity of mercury waste from a local scrapyard in the middle of Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, led to a disturbing revelation. The Hindustan Unilever (HUL) thermometer plant, shipped from New York to this pristine hill station in 1983, had been pumping mercury vapours into the atmosphere and flouting protocols for toxic waste disposal for over two decades.
With workers and ex-workers complaining of mercury exposure-related health problems and soil and air contamination levels going off the charts, the local community, aided by Greenpeace, pressurized the corporate giant to shut down the factory and clean up the site. But the lack of adequate remediation measures continued to put the heath of the people and ecosystem of Kodaikanal at risk. Demanding better clean-up standards and reparations, the locals took HUL to the Madras High Court, the National Green Tribunal and ultimately to the Supreme Court a long arduous legal battle which ended with a sealed out-of-court settlement in 2016.
In Heavy Metal, investigative journalist Ameer Shahul chronicles this tragedy and its aftermath in startling detail. Drawing from his own experience as a Greenpeace activist for the cause, he presents a haunting yet inspiring portrait of struggle, survival and resilience in the face of one of the worst acts of corporate negligence and devastation in recent history.