Residents of Kalampalayam and nearby villages in Tirupur are in a race against time, demanding immediate action from the Tirupur City Municipal Corporation to clear massive waste dumps from abandoned stone quarries before their groundwater is irreversibly polluted.
Legal Battle for a Clean Environment
Frustrated by the civic body's inaction, the community has turned to the legal system, filing multiple petitions with the National Green Tribunal (NGT), South Zone, in Chennai. They seek a direct order compelling the corporation to remove the hazardous waste. This legal push has gained significant momentum over the last two weeks.
The Source of the Contamination
The crisis stems from a decision by the Tirupur City Municipal Corporation to use old, abandoned stone quarries as a dumping ground. According to R Sathish Kumar, an RTI activist from Tirupur, the corporation dumped garbage in several quarries located on six acres of revenue land in Kalampalayam village between October 2024 and May 2025.
The situation worsened with heavy rainfall in the region. Rainwater accumulated in these deep quarries, some exceeding 100 feet in depth, and mixed with the rotting garbage. This created a toxic cocktail known as leachate, which has already contaminated the water in three stone quarries.
A Looming Public Health Disaster
The residents' primary fear is the seepage of this leachate into the broader groundwater system. "Before contaminating all the stone quarries, we request the Tirupur City Municipal Corporation to clear the garbage along with the contaminated water from three abandoned quarries," pleaded Sathish Kumar. He emphasized that these quarries, which could have served as excellent groundwater recharge points, are now turning into poison wells.
Adding to the urgency, Sathish Kumar recently submitted a report to the NGT indicating possible contamination at the Thirumuruganpoondi temple site, which is located merely 1 km away from the polluted quarries. This suggests the contamination plume is spreading, threatening a wider area.
This environmental struggle follows a previous victory where villagers successfully campaigned against the stone quarries themselves, leading the government to permanently close over 45 quarries across 60 acres of land in 2024.
