Un-holi sight: Humans, animals dye unnaturally in Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation’s Vatva estate

AHMEDABAD: If you are feeling blue about pollution, a trip to Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation’s Vatva estate will provoke a cry at the sight of hues tainting both humans and animals. Dye-making units in the area have transformed some residents into alarming caricatures of The Smurf ’s world, a Belgian comic series renowned for its brightly coloured characters.
But in the Vatva patch, a Trump-orange cyclist and a blue dog are not the products of benign creative flourish but the result of red-hot occupational hazard at industrial units that manufacture chemicals, dyestuffs, and pigments. Monkeys and squirrels too have been painted abnormally after their brush with these units.
Vatva’s Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) estate is spread over an area of about 527 hectares and houses over 2,500 industrial units in four phases. The estate is a part of the AMC. Industrial units based here also manufacture chemicals, textiles, plastic, rubber, food, and pharmaceuticals. The estate accommodates foundries and engineering units too.

A security guard at one of the dyestuff manufacturing units said that many animals here have turned blue and green because of the chemicals. “Dogs and monkeys are fed by the workers so they keep entering the premises and get in contact with spilled chemicals,” the guard said. “When workers exit the factories, they are seen in all sorts of colours including bright yellow, orange, and blue.” As for the dyes themselves, more than 1,000 units in Vatva GIDC make a range of them: reactive dyes, direct dyes, disperse dyes, acid dyes, and dye intermediates.
A senior GPCB (Gujarat Pollution Control Board) official who has been monitoring Vatva GIDC’s dyeing units said that reactive dyes are responsible for daubing humans and animals with bizarre tints. These dyes are made of fine particles that stick to skin or clothes if proper protective gear is not worn, the official said.

“A large number of factories are small and medium units with a work area of not more than 500 square metres,” the official said. “In such circumstances, workers avoid wearing protective gear because of the heat.” The official went on to say: “Despite several warnings from the department of industrial safety and health, workers ditch protective gear. Factory owners don’t intervene.”

Dye is cast for Vatva fauna
The resistance to using the gear is akin to the general public’s reluctance to wear masks during the pandemic, the official said. The majority of the units export their dyes and dye intermediates to the US, Turkey, Bangladesh, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brazil. Daily, roughly 16,000 cubic metres of effluents from the dyeing units are treated by GIDC, which employs close to 1.6 lakh workers.
“Most of the units strictly follow all the guidelines prescribed by the National Green Tribunal and the GPCB. However, the occasional spillage during transportation may occur at some units,” said Yogesh Parikh, president, Gujarat Dyestuff Manufacturers Association (GDMA). Parikh added: “We keep advising the units about the proper handling of pigments and chemicals.”