Ranipet
Ranipet is a town in Vellore District of Tamil Nadu state in southern India.Ranipet is a medium-sized community located about 100 miles from Chennai, the fourth largest urban area in India.
It is a main junction in the Chennai-Bangalore road. It has a number of small scale industries here. These industries are mostly engaged in chemical, leather and tool making . These industries are the major lifeline for other wise dry , uncultivatable land.
The Boiler Auxiliaries Plant (BAP) of the BHEL is situated in the town.
The town is flanked by Arcot , Walajapettai ,Katapdi on three sides.
The major schools here are DAV BHEL Hr.sec school, Sri Ramakrishna BHEL school , Little Flower Convent.
Health Issues
Ranipet is located about 100 miles upstream from Chennai, the fourth largest urban area in India. Although Ranipet is a medium sized town, its problems also pose a potential risk to the population of the nearby city of Vellore. A factory in Ranipet manufactures sodium chromate, chromium salts and basic chromium sulfate tanning powder used locally in the leather tanning process. The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TN PCB) estimates that about 1,500,000 tons of solid wastes accumulated over two decades of plant operation are stacked in an open yard (three to five meters high and on 2 hectares of land) on the facility premises and contaminating the groundwater.
The contamination of the soil and groundwater with wastewater, as well as run off from solid wastes has affected the health, resources, and livelihood of thousands of people. In a residential colony about 1 kilometer from the factory. Three open wells, a dozen bore wells and about 25 public hand pumps have been abandoned due to high chromium levels in the water. Agricultural land about a kilometer from the factory has also been affected. There is widespread fear that if this pollution is left unchecked, the Palar basin, the main drinking water source in the region, could also be contaminated. Indian farmers who have the misfortune of cultivating this toxic land claim that the toxic waste from the nearby tanneries degrades the fertility of the land citing that " invariably, only one in five crops does well." Farmers also complain of the foul smells which emanate from the very water they use to irrigate their fields claiming that, "when we come in contact with the water we get ulcerations on our skins and it stings like an insect bite."
The contamination of the soil and groundwater with wastewater, as well as run off from solid wastes has affected the health, resources, and livelihood of thousands of people. In a residential colony about 1 kilometer from the factory. Three open wells, a dozen bore wells and about 25 public hand pumps have been abandoned due to high chromium levels in the water. Agricultural land about a kilometer from the factory has also been affected. There is widespread fear that if this pollution is left unchecked, the Palar basin, the main drinking water source in the region, could also be contaminated. Indian farmers who have the misfortune of cultivating this toxic land claim that the toxic waste from the nearby tanneries degrades the fertility of the land citing that " invariably, only one in five crops does well." Farmers also complain of the foul smells which emanate from the very water they use to irrigate their fields claiming that, "when we come in contact with the water we get ulcerations on our skins and it stings like an insect bite."