The Central government’s move to set up a textile park in Tamil Nadu, particularly in Tirupur has been opposed by the Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum (VCWF) on the grounds that the cluster would worsen the already serious problem of pollution caused by the dyeing units in Tirupur.

P.S. Subrahmanian, honorary secretary of the forum referring to the statement made by Santhosh Kumar Gangwar, Union Minister of State for Textiles at a function at the VIT University on Friday that there was plenty of scope for the technical textile sector all over the country and asking every state government to participate in the textile park bids,

Mr. Subrahmanian has urged the Tamil Nadu government not to participate in the bid since the setting up textile park will increase the growth of dyeing and bleaching clusters causing more pollution and further damage to water bodies, agricultural lands, environment and health of the people.

In Tirupur, Coimbatore and other places where dyeing and bleaching units are located are highly polluted by the effluents discharged from them.

There are hundreds of such units generating highly toxic effluents which are polluting water bodies and particularly the Cauvery River and its tributaries.

Thousands of hectares of agricultural lands have been damaged badly and agricultural production has been greatly reduced as per the finding of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and the Loss of Ecology Authority.

The VCWF stated that the textile industry has not been able to check the pollution and the level of total dissolved solids (TDS) in the Noyyal River, which had increased to a level between 7000 ppm (parts per million) and 11,000 ppm as against the limit of 2100 ppm fixed by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.