RAM NATH YADAV, 54, sardonically laughs at the entrance to its two -room single -storey house, which has a roof leak, original walls and damaged floors. His neighbor, Vakil Ahmed, in his late 1950s, just told him that the central government plans to establish a mega leather cluster, where 175 tanners will be founded or moved in Ramaipur in Kanpur.
Here, about 12 kilometers from the city center of Kanpur, widespread to 2,000 acres, Uttar Pradesh will see the regeneration of industry that flourished after the war of 1857 independence.
It is 8 March and Ahmed, a teacher in a private school, read a local Hinda daily report that quoted a letter from Union Commerce and Minister of Industry Kanpur MP Ramesh Awasthi. The center asked for a detailed report on the cluster project, the report said. Ahmed is nice with Yadav because his own father was a worker.
Yadav, a second -generation tanner who lives in Afeem Kothi in Kanpur, says: “My work is becoming increasingly irregular. Things have deteriorated over the past eight years. I hope this cluster will reduce the cost of tanning and decrease the pollution frames.” It wonders if it will revive the industry and livelihood that it depends so much.
Last year he barely earned 60 000 GBP, one third of what he earned ten years ago. “The salary failed when I needed it most,” he said, adding that he needed money to marry with both of his daughters.
Now the Green Tribunal (NGT) National Court hears a case that raises serious concerns about environmental pollution in the districts of Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat and Fatehpur mainly because of leather tanning waste lane into gangs and soil.
Heavy metals such as chrome and mercury have also led to a public health crisis.
Health and Earth Problems
Kanpur, known as the “leather city of India”, has more than 200 active tanneys distributed in 15 kilometers. Tanning is the process of leather production when hiding, already removed from the animal, removes hair and tissue and built into a durable material. The tanning derives its name from Tannice, an acid reagent that helps to cure hide.
The tannery industry in Kanpur was powered by demand for military leather goods from the British army, access to the gang water, the abundant labor, raw materials and extensive undeveloped soil.
NGT, a legal authority in India, which deals with cases related to environmental protection in November 2024, ordered UP to lead health camps in the most difficult affected areas, including Raki Mandi and Afe Kothi, in the Kanpur Nagar district. Camps revealed high levels of mercury and chrome in the samples of the population. Similar medical camps organized in the districts of Kanpur Dehat and Fatehpur have led to the identification of extended health problems, including respiratory diseases, neurological disorders, behavioral changes and skin conditions.
A worker in a tanner in the Bantala area in Kolkata in West Bengal. | Photo Credit: Sanjit Das
The affidavit of the district judge Kanpur Nagar underwent NGT states that in various camps in industrial areas Punki and Jajmau, among other things, there were people who suffered from a number of problems such as liver disease and respiratory problems. Amicus Curiae said that during his interaction with patients, she also found a lack of doctors in this area and lack of test infrastructure to check the presence of heavy metals in the bloodstream.
Rajnish Misra, 48 years old in Kanpur and is a medical representative, says: “Over the years I have developed asthma and my wife has a chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD).
This has deteriorated not only physical health but also financial health. “There Was and Time When Kanpur and Adjoining Parts Had Over 600 Tanneries, Employing More Than 1 Lakh Workers. However, IT Declined Since 2017 When the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) Environmental Compensation Penalty of ₹ 12,500 Per Day, ”Says Shahid, in His 50s, Who Owns and Tannery Business in Partnership. A year ago they hit them with demonization overnight. Now they say they run a factory for 15 days a month for half the capacity. Since 100 leather processing a day they got to 50.
After 2020, the cost of treatment of the waste of tanneries increased sharply from 2 GBP behind the hiding to more than 15 GBP behind the skin, as they were asked to carry the expenditure associated with the treatment of wastewater sent to the conventional treatment area managed by water department, the owners say.
Currently, the cost of processing on the skin has increased to approximately 100 GBP and tanneys work only to 25% of their capacity, with employees facing salaries. Long -term shutdown of tanner problems and festivals such as Kumbh and Magh Malas contributed to the crisis. In fact, in the last eight years, many tanners have been temporarily closed at least nine times, with a period of time from a few weeks to more than a year.
Kanpur processes are hidden mainly from up and some of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. However, with the ban on the defeat of the cow in these states and the fear of cows’ vigilants, there is little hiding of cattle.
Yadav says the skin is withdrawn from the animal as soon as they are killed. Then they are carefully in the slaughterhouse to prevent the growth of bacteria. Before selling tannery, the skin is solen to remove 55% of the water content and then dry for three to six days.
Ahmed remembers the process of his childhood and youth in graphic details when he went with his father to witness: “Uncooked skin is first preserved and designed in a tanner. It describes a machine called Salt Shaker through which they were laid with the skin to remove salt.
Owners and tanners argue that growing challenges in the field are running many owners of leather sunscreen to leave Kanpur. “Little and medium players move to West Bengal, where they rent or buy tanneys.
Answer and Hope
In November last year, NGT issued detailed instructions to the government to submit time -bound action plans for several sectors, including healthcare, drainage and waste treatment, rejuvenation of the river and remedy of land and groundwater by 7 March 2025. However, the government did not submit a report on progress.
Trade union activists hold the factory owners responsible for environmental pollution and a decline in business trips. It is said that employers benefit from taking short -time workers so that management can avoid responsibility for carrying such as the provisional fund, reward, paid holiday and other benefits of organized sector.
“There are no work laws within the tanner and allied industries (such as shoes and finished leather),” says Chandershekhar, General Secretary of the Union Congress All India (UP). It says that the owners of tanneys are not in line with the rules of pollution, with the installed units of waste water processing are often non -functional or lack the desired capacity to treat waste.
For example, in October 2019, UPPCB ordered tannery in Kanpuru to find shortcomings in 126 tanneys allowed after the NGT monitoring wing report with a course of 50% capacity. “Wastewater from tanner shots, which are located in the industrial area of the Jajmaau, were released into the river,” UPPCB said at that time.
Critics associate the decline in industry with the ideology of BJP Hindutva, which is on Wednesday and the state.
“If you immerse themselves in the main part of the store, most of the tannery workers and owners are Muslims. In the last century, a rich class appeared in Kanpur. In 2021-2022, a campaign between owners and workers in Kanpur and Lucknow to revive tanneys. Industry ”to take alternative measures.
The UP government claims to propose a new skin policy and shoes to increase exports. The aim of this policy is to provide financial support, technological improvements and export subsidies to manufacturers and exporters and is likely to focus on supporting design capacity, production of components and machines needed for leather shoes.
Awasthi, a kanpur deputy, who is in the forefront of the reserved leather cluster, says the space will significantly reduce pollution and help the industry to flourish. “Mega leather cluster will be established in an organized, systematic way,” he says, hoping this process will start this year.
I hope that is what Yadava keeps in profession. “I will be waiting for a year. If the situation does not improve, I will move to work as a driver. Maybe I will buy a CNG vehicle,” he said, adding that two of his former colleagues who changed the trade in 2020 earn more than 20,000 GBP per month.
Mayank.kumar@thehind.co.in
Edit Sunalini Mathew
Published – April 20, 2025 17:17
