HEAVY METAL

HEAVY METAL
HOW A GLOBAL CORPORATION POISONED KODAIKANAL
 
AMEER SHAHUL
The ultimate investigative account of a global corporation’s hand in the unchecked mercury poisoning of one of India’s most biodiverse regions which affected over six hundred people and caused irrevocable damage to the ecosystem. In March 2001, the discovery of a massive quantity of mercury waste from a local scrapyard in the middle of Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, led to a disturbing revelation. The Hindustan Unilever (HUL) thermometer plant, shipped from New York to this pristine hill station in 1983, had been pumping mercury vapours into the atmosphere and flouting protocols for toxic waste disposal for over two decades. With workers and ex-workers complaining of mercury exposure-related health problems and soil and air contamination levels going off the charts, the local community, aided by Greenpeace, pressurized the corporate giant to shut down the factory and clean up the site. But the lack of adequate remediation measures continued to put the heath of the people and ecosystem of Kodaikanal at risk. Demanding better clean-up standards and reparations, the locals took HUL to the Madras High Court, the National Green Tribunal and ultimately to the Supreme Court – a long arduous legal battle which ended with a sealed out-of-court settlement in 2016. In Heavy Metal, investigative journalist Ameer Shahul chronicles this tragedy and its aftermath in startling detail. Drawing from his own experience as a Greenpeace activist for the cause, he presents a haunting yet inspiring portrait of struggle, survival and resilience in the face of one of the worst acts of corporate negligence and devastation in recent history.
AMEER SHAHUL
Ameer Shahul was an investigative journalist with Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and PTI. He has travelled widely to report on issues ranging from war to workforce. He is an Indian public policy and advocacy expert working in the area of technology and green policies with a focus on emerging technologies. Inspired by a campaign by the local community in Kodaikanal, he took a hiatus from his journalistic career in 2002 and joined Greenpeace to support the community on the damage inflicted on the biodiverse ecosystem by a global corporation through its reckless acts of omission and commission. A voracious reader and writer, he writes on issues of environment, technology and public policy.