After almost ten years of fight against air pollution, the residents of Mahul&Ambapada in Mumbai have been successful to get the justice. The National Green Tribunal has recently ordered to shut down the A.G. SiloedCompany that polluting the air by producing the harmful chemicals. Therefore, Mahul village and Ambapada residents can now breathe freely.
Since the establishment of A.G. Siloed Company in 2007 in the Mahul area, it has about 11 Chemical Storage Tanks in the residential area of Mahul&Ambapada. About 36 types of chemicals are stored in these tanks every day. The residents have many health issues due to the air pollution by these chemicals also the smell was worst. The company used to fill almost 700 tankers every day. The storage tank used to get cleaned before the chemical is stored every time. The Nitrogen was used to clean these storage tanks; this Nitrogen caused many respiratory disorders to the residents.
In the last 10 years, the residents of Mahul&Ambapada have fought a court battle against the A G Siloed Company. The residents have spent almost 4.5 crore rupees in this 10 years, at times they mortgagedtheir houses, hotels and businesses to collect the money to fight in the court. At last their legal fight from Maharashtra Pollution Board to Green Tribunalresulted for the betterment of their health as the National Green Tribunal ordered to shut down the A G Siloed Company.
- G. Siloed Company was situated at the backside of the residential colony. As a result of air pollution, women here have been getting menstrual cycle twice a month. In the last few years, due to environmental pollution by the company, health problems arose to people in both the villages of Ambapada and Mahul where the population is more than 20 thousand. Due to the air pollution the skin disorders, eye-inflammation, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, paralysis, abortion, etc. disease were increasing day by day.
“We had complained to almost more than 26 different authorities but no one addressed our problems. Many residents have been diagnosed with cancer since the establishment of the company. Around 50 deaths were reported due to the air pollution in 2017, DayaramMahulkar, Petitioner of MahulAmbapada Committeetold. Along with him, the petition was filed against the company by CharuduttKoli, Mohan Mhatre and DattaramKoli.
Fishing affected too
Aftercleaning the storage tank, theA. G. SiloedCompanyreleased polluted water into the sea.The local residents has blamed that this has badly affected the fishing. Underthe leadership of Environment MinisterRamdasKadam, the raid was conducted by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board; the board had noticed that contaminated water was released in the sea. The raid also noticed that there was no one use of influent treatment plant which processes the water used in the industrial sector.
Study by KEM
Respiratory mobility survey was conducted in the area of Mahul and Ambapadaarea, many of them complained of chest pain and difficulty in breathing.
Survey in Mahul
67.1 percent of people complained about respiratory inhalation
86.6 percent of people complained of eye-inflammation
84.5 percent of people complained of pain in the chest
Survey in Ambapada
66.5 percent of people complained about Phlegm
61.3 percent complained of eye-inflammation
51.4 People complained of pain in the chest
53.3 They complained of cough and cold
