Sterlite Copper awaits NGT hearing

P Ramnath, Chief Executive Officer of Sterlite Copper is a confused man, “I do not how the rumours spread that the Sterlite Copper plant is the source of so much pollution in Tuticorin”, he says.

Following wide-scale protests that culminated in police firing and the shutdown of the plant, Ramnath believes that the current fluidity and confusion in Tamil Nadu politics played into the hands of the protesters. “We have become a victim of ‘Fake News’”, he laments.

However, he is preparing himself for a hearing at the National Green Tribunal next week which he believes will show the complete picture. “Take the matter of Sulphur Dioxide, which many protestors claimed that the copper-smelting plant was releasing in high volumes. In the ambient air around the area, our plant contributed just one percent of sulphur dioxide emissions, a majority of the sulphur dioxide emissions in the Tuticorin area are from coal-fired thermal power plants.”

The shutdown of the Sterlite Copper plant has had devastating impacts on the local economy. While Sterlite Copper themselves supported 4000 local workers and an additional 1000 in other sites, the company believes that the plant also supported another 25,000 indirect jobs.

“Every day, over 1000 trucks, their drivers and helpers came to the plant. They are sitting idle now, other suppliers and consumers of our products especially in the Coimbatore region are shutting shop. We can sustain giving salaries for a while, but these small companies, they cannot”, Ramnath argues. In addition, he says that the Corporate Social Responsibility programs of the company reached 250,000 women and children in the area, “we have stopped those programs.”

Unfortunately, the problems which might have underlying cause of being funded by those with interests against Indian industrialisation will make matters worse. “The protests are well-organised and use thousands of educated and unemployed youth. The protests that started against our expansion were strange since our expansion from 2,00,000 tons to 400,000 tons per annum would have employed another 3000-4000 youth, most of them locals from Tamil Nadu.”

There is also the matter of the plants supplies into domestic industry. India currently consumes 0.5 kilograms of refined copper per capita per annum, the global average is 3.5 kilograms and China consumes nearly 7 kilograms.

With an aggressive rural electrification program, renewable energy, rural housing and other infrastructure build-outs, Ramnath believes that in the next three-four Indian demand would have shot up from 7,00,000 tons to 1.4 million tons.

“The shutdown of the plant in Tuticorin will cost us $2 billion in additional copper imports and another $1.5 billion in lost import revenue”, he says. And while other suppliers have picked up some slack, the shutdown of India’s largest refined copper smelter will have huge consequences for India’s economy as well as Tamil Nadu.