“We did not force Kanpur tanneries to shut down for environmental reasons, as they rather fostered a number of campaigns to create intentionally, on purpose, a lot of social concern about the issue. Moreover, still we have to assess the harmful effects of factories on the water of the river Ganges: in fact, they imposed penalties even though there was no real evidence about the non-compliance of tanneries in the treatment of sewage and waste products”. The Wire, an Indian newspaper, made public such exclusive news provided by an anonymous officer of the Uttar Pradesh Environment Authority. In other words, the suspension of work activities in the national tanning cluster, imposed in November, ahead of the Kumbh Mela celebration, and still in effect at present, nearly two months after the end of the Hindu religious festivity, does not hang on environmental reasons. It is rather based, conversely, on political purposes. Which ones? Dali Rham, president of Bharatiya Dalit Panther, an association that struggles against the caste system in India’s society and safeguards the poorest brackets of the population, pointed them out while speaking to the First Post. They said they closed tanneries to protect somehow the river Ganges: “This is ridiculous, since many other activities are going to pollute the river”, he remarked. The real problem is about politics: since the BJP, the Hindu radical party, got the power in India and in Uttar Pradesh, authorities did want to undermine the meat and leather industry to hit “Dalit (they belong to the pariah caste, which is the poorest one in India’s social system, editor’s note) and Muslims, who mostly work in tanneries”.
India’s anonymous source reveals they hit tanneries for political reasons, “they made up the story of Kanpur pollution on purpose”
