SUKINDA: TOP OF THE DIRTY THIRTY HEAP

Sukinda valley in Orissa has made it to the top ten of the world’s 30 most polluted places. Seventy
years of intensive open-cast chromite mining have resulted in a scarred landscape, toxic water
and soil, ruined agricultural fields, degraded forestland, and populations that are being slowly
poisoned

Sukinda valley, tucked away in northern Orissa’s Jajpur district, is a place not many have heard of.
Very few people know that this small area contributes over 97% of India’s chromite ore -- an
important ingredient in the production of stainless steel, plating metal surfaces, glassware, leather
tanning, catalysts, and alloys. Many of these items end up in our homes and kitchens as
expensive cutlery and gleaming glassware.

A report jointly published in September 2007 by the US-based Blacksmith Institute and the Swiss
group Green Cross Switzerland places Sukinda in the top 10 list of the world’s 30 most polluted
places. One look at its scarred landscape confirms why it deserves such a dubious honour.

Seventy years of intensive open-cast chromite ore extraction have resulted in massive holes in the
ground, mountains of ‘overburden’ (waste rock and soil), toxic water and soil, ruined agricultural
fields and large tracts of degraded forestland. And the people have been slowly poisoned over the
years, as in many mining areas around the country.

Over 30 million tonnes of hexavalent chromium (Cr+6)-bearing overburden, generated by 13

chromite mines, have completely altered the landscape of the region. Many of the mines here do
not have an environmental management plan; untreated or partially treated waste water from the
mines, generated while washing the ore, and excess water from the mine pits is let out into the
open fields of the surrounding villages. It eventually drains into the Damasa river, a tributary of the
Bramhni that empties out into the Bay of Bengal.

The Bramhni is the lifeline of an estimated 2.6 million people in the district. A study by NORAD’s
Orissa Environment Programme, revealed high levels of Cr+6 in sediment from the Bay of Bengal,
which has been attributed to chromite mining in the Sukinda valley. A 2002 report by the
Comptroller and Auditor General called Sukinda a “highly polluted area”.

In a statement in 2002, the government of Orissa admitted that “it (hexavalent chromium pollution)
is unique, it is gigantic and it is beyond the means and purview of the (Orissa Pollution Control)
Board to solve the problem”. A known human carcinogen, Cr+6 also causes respiratory tract
irritation, nasal septum ulcers, irritant dermatitis, rhinitis, bronchospasm and pneumonia.

Although the Orissa Pollution Control Board has called the Blacksmith report an “exaggeration”, its
own findings showed dangerous levels of Cr+6 in the mine overburden and surface water.
Between 2004 and 2005, the Board monitored levels of Cr+6 in the Damasa river, as part of a
study funded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) titled ‘Environment Study and
Preparation of Action Plan for Abatement of Chromium Pollution in Sukinda Valley’. The study
revealed the presence of Cr+6 in the range of ‘0.018-0.172 mg/l in summer season’ and higher
levels during the monsoon -- up to ‘0.201mg/l at village Ostapal’, which far exceeds the prescribed
standard (0.05 mg/l) for Class B and C categories of inland surface water. The study also found
hexavalent chromium and total chromium content in the overburden, in the range of 12-311 mg/kg
and 3,589–14,486 mg/kg respectively.

According to the Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), Bhubaneswar, one tonne of chromite
mining generates around 10 tonnes of overburden which is diverse in its chemical and
mineralogical character. In most areas of Sukinda valley, the overburden is predominantly nickeli
ferrous laterite, containing 0.7% nickel. RRL estimates that about 7.6 MT (metric tonnes) of
overburden stored per annum has the potential of releasing 11.73 tonnes of Cr+6 per year into the
environment.

“Not only is our water poisoned, but these mines are also draining all our groundwater by going
deeper every year. With the mine pits lower than the water table, all the water is draining into the
mine pits. We have experienced acute water scarcity in the area for several years, especially the
last four years. And the jharna water gives us a skin rash,” says Nand Kishore Mahanto, a resident
of Bhimtangor village, adjacent to the TISCO mines.

The villagers allege that water scarcity due to large-scale mining has severely affected agricultural
production. Most villagers own small pieces of land (between one and two acres) and depend on
subsistence farming. “With the loss of agriculture, the people have no option but to do menial jobs
in the mines on daily wages,” says Kalindi Mallik, an activist working in the area. The government
claims that the mines provide direct employment to over 7,000 people; much of this is contract
labour, say the villagers.

A 1996 study by RRL Bhubaneswar showed that Cr+6 had entered the foodchain as well. It was
found in edible plants, especially paddy and mango, and in meat and fish. The study also
documented extremely high levels of Cr+6 in mine water at TISCO’s Sukinda Chromite Mines in
Kaliapani, as well as the South Kaliapani wells of the Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC).
In 2001, a study published in the international journal Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and
Toxicology, by a scientist from Delhi University, reported extremely high levels of Cr+6 in the
surface and groundwater near the chromite mines. It was stated to be as high as 52 mg/l in the
effluent channel coming out of TISCO’s plant. In all, 70.37% of surface water samples analysed
contained Cr+6 in excess of the safe level of 0.1 mg/l. The study found that the drinking water
being supplied by the mining companies, also the water in borewells, also contained unsafe levels
of Cr+6. Almost 61.11% of the drinking water samples had high concentrations of Cr+6. The study
concluded that the reasons for such high levels of Cr+6 contamination in the area were
indiscriminate discharge of untreated water from the mines and workshops, rainwater running off
large overburdens, and dumps collapsing and mixing with water in the river.

Nothing has changed since these studies, as a reporter from Down To Earth, a New Delhi-based
environment and science bimonthly, found out in April 2007. Samples collected and tested by the
reporter showed the presence of Cr+6 in water from a drain flowing out of TISCO’s mine dump
and in almost all waterbodies in Sukinda.

Mahanto alleges that untreated mine water and run-off from the TISCO overburden has destroyed
agricultural land in the area. Large tracts of once-fertile agricultural land in Bhimtangor village are
now covered with mine overburden. Residents of Kakoria village, where TISCO has in the past
one year leased forest land and started dumping overburden, have protested the dumping as the
mine waste runs off into their fields during the monsoons.

While studying the impact of mining and related industries in the Sukinda valley, the Orissa
Remote Sensing Applications Centre highlighted large-scale degradation of forestland in the last
two decades. There has been a net increase of degraded forest area, from 731.88 ha in 1974 to
1,828.98 ha in 1994.

Despite all the evidence, however, there has been no comprehensive health impact assessment of
exposure to Cr+6 done in the region.

A survey carried out by the Orissa Voluntary Health Association (OVHA) in 1995, funded by the
Norwegian government, reported that 84.75% of deaths in the mining areas and 86.42% of deaths
in nearby industrial villages occurred due to chromite mine-related diseases. People living less
than a kilometre from the sites were the worst affected, with 24.47% of inhabitants suffering from
pollution-induced illnesses, said OVHA. It concluded that “the pollution and health hazards related
to hexavalent chromium are acute, causing irreparable (damage) to human health”.

“Residents of 10 villages downstream of Damasa, especially Borogazi, Kalrangi, Rasul, Kustanpur

and Khusksa, all complain of skin irritations and TB. And there is an acute dust problem in the
area. Especially during the summer we cannot stand in this area without getting fully covered in
dust. It irritates our skin, nose and throat; people suffer from asthma,” says Mohanto.

And, says one villager, given the water scarcity, many villagers are forced to bathe in water that
accumulates in the abandoned chromite mine pits.

“We kept meeting people with dermatitis. We saw a woman bathing a child covered with sores all
over his body, in a stream that was apparently contaminated with mine water discharge. We talked
to her about it and she said she knew that the water caused it, but there was no alternative water
source,” says Mahalakshmi Parthasarthy, a researcher from Bangalore who conducted a field visit
in the area in 2001. Parthasarthy met women washing utensils in the contaminated water
downstream of the Damasa, who said that they used the same water for drinking.

“Working conditions in the mines are dangerous, with most of the mines damp and slippery,” said
a worker at the Saruabil mines. For women workers, the work conditions are not just back-
breaking but also highly exploitative. “There are a few men in the area who enjoy the patronage of
the ruling political party and have control over most of the mines. They exploit the women workers,
and there have been a number of cases of rape and murder in the mines. But who will report it to
the police? The police cannot do anything. These mafias control the area,” says Mohanto. The
Sukinda mines saw a lot of trade union rivalry and violence in the 1990s.

By its very nature, mining is a violent activity -- to the environment and to humans. Sukinda’s
mutilated landscape, its once-vibrant fields, its poisoned rivers, its wetlands, its brutalised local
population, all bear testimony to this ugly fact. But perhaps what makes Sukinda stand out is the
avarice with which the mining companies have plundered the place without any qualms or
amends.

Chromite ore production in the country

• India contributed 17% of global production of chromite ore in the year 2004, according to the
United States Mineral Resource Programme.
• Orissa has 25,199,000 tonnes of proved, 29,926,000 tonnes of probable, 28,477,000 tonnes
of possible chromite ore reserves.
• The state produced 31,23,386 MT of chromite ore in 2004-05, of which 30,35,201 tonnes
were explored from Jajpur district alone.
• Chromite exports from Orissa increased from 3.46 lakh tonnes in 1994-95 to 11.68 lakh
tonnes in 2003-04.
• Total exports from the Paradeep Port Trust were 7 lakh metric tonnes in 2003-04.
• There are 16 working chromite mines in Orissa, located over 7481.88 hectares of lease area
and 5263.662 hectares of forest area spread over Dhenkanal, Jajpur and Keonjhar districts.

Source: ENVIS Newsletter, Volume 5, No 1, May-July 2006. Centre For Environmental Studies,
Forest and Environment Department, Government of Orissa

List of mines operating in Sukinda valley

1. Orissa Mining Corportion Limited (OMC): Kaliapani Chromite Mine

2. OMC Ltd: South Kaliapani Chromite Mine
3. C Mohanty and Sons Ltd: Kamarda Chromite Mine
4. Ferro Alloys Corporation Limited (FACOR): Ostapal Chromite Mine
5. Industrial Development Corporation Ltd: Tailangi Chromite Mine
6. Mishrilal Jain Mines Pvt Ltd: Saruabil Chromite Mine
7. MC Ltd: Sukarangi Chromite Mine
8. ACOR Ltd: Kathpal Chromite Mine
9. ISCO Ltd: Sukinda Chromite Mine
10. Indian Metal and Ferro Alloys Limited (IMFA): Sukinda Chromite Mine
11. MFA Ltd: Chingudipal Chromite Mine
12. Indal Strips Ltd: Kaliapani Chromite Mine
13. SPAT Alloys Ltd: Sukinda Chromite Mine

Source: Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No 733, Answered on 12.07.2004, Government of India,
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Polluting Mines