This article throws light upon the four major industries that are responsible for causing pollution. The industries are: 1. Fertilizer Industry 2. Tannery Industry 3. Pesticides Industries 4. Chemical Industries.
1. Fertilizer Industries:
The chemical and fertilizer industries are among the most hazardous industries as they make use of various chemicals as raw materials. The solid waste of these industries is also very dangerous because it may contain heavy metals as well as high concentration of poisonous chemicals.
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Some fertilizer industries in India have started adopting cleaner technologies. For example, at Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd, Goa, effluents like cooling tower blow down, hand washing in bagging plant which were previously getting neutralized and treated in effluent treatment plant and then discharged as effluent are now transferred to phosphatic plants for use in the process.
The fertilizer and chemical industries are regarded as potent chemicals bombs because of the hazards associated with them. They emit toxic smoke and generate large amounts of toxic effluents. These toxic effluents are responsible for massive killing of fish and marine animals in oceans, rivers and lakes. They also cause eutrophication of water bodies and reduce farm yields in the nearby fields.
Studies have shown that less than 0.1 percent of chemical pesticides in India reach the target pest and the rest is absorbed and devastates humans, livestock and natural biota. Assuming 0.1 percent as the effective utilization rate for chemical pesticides, pesticide pollution in India is expected to be in the range of 45,000 to 50,000 tonnes per year.
2. Tannery Industry:
The problem is that while processing about 2500-3000 tonnes of raw material, Indian leather industry generate about 80,000-90,000 cubic metres of waste water per day in this way leather Industry.
India’s 2500 tanneries produce about 1.8 billion square feet of leather every year. They also discharge about 24 million cubic metres of waste water with high COD, BOD and total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration, along with about 0.4 million tonnes of hazardous solid wastes per annum. This pollution is the outcome of highly polluting chrome tanning manufacturing process, used by about 80% of India tanneries.
3. Pesticides Industries:
There are thousands of pesticides in the market. They either contaminate the water by phosphate or chloride along with increase of BOD, COD, Sulphates and nitrates. There are some pesticides which cause BOD even to the range of 20000-30,000 mg/1. The dangerous pesticides such as DDT, aldrin, dialdrin, hexachor benzene etc. are harmful for the aquatic life and human beings.
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Some year back due to leakage of methyl isocyanate from a pesticide factory at Bhopal 20,000 persons were crippled and about 15000 died within a couple of days. This is the worst example of air pollution in the world from a pesticides factory situated in India.
Indiscriminate of fertilizer and pesticides have damaged the environment with lethal poisons. These poisons have caused excessive mortality, reduced reproductive potential in organisms, change in diversity of species and ecosystems, and the development of pesticide resistance in target and non-toxins are present everywhere — in milk products, vegetables, fish, cold drinks, grains, meat, ground water, drinking water and even breast milk.
4. Chemical Industries:
The chemical industries discharged various toxic chemicals in the field causing destruction of vegetation, soil and water. They should discharge effluent after proper treatment otherwise the life on this planet will be difficult. They release even cyanides in the field due to which at the one time about 50000 fish were died in Meerut Kali River in 1984.