Leather And Leather Case Study

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IMPACT OF LEATHER AND TANNING INDUSTRIES ON RIVER GANGA IN KANPUR
The leather and tannery industry grooming up in Kanpur has transformed river Ganga into a dumping ground. The leather industry discharges various kinds of waste into the environment, mainly in the liquid effluents form having organic matters, sulphide, ammonium, chromium and many other such salts. According to an estimate, approximately 80-90% of the tanning industries use chromium as a tanning agent which is highly toxic. Of all this, the hides usually take up just 50-70%, and the remaining is discharged as an effluent. Pollution becomes acute and a cause of great tension when tanning and leather industries are concentrated in clusters in a small area such as Kanpur. The tanning and leather industry is very polluting especially through effluents which are high in inorganic and organic dissolved contents and suspended solids accompanied by negative impacts for high biological oxygen demand of the river and having potentially toxic metallic salt residues. Unbearable smell coming out from the decomposition of solid waste, presence of the toxic and pungent smelling gases like hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and other volatile organic compounds are all usually associated with the activities of leather and tanning industries. A major portion of the chemicals employed in …show more content…

This is nearly 48 times greater than the tolerable value. In the similar fashion, the amount of toxic chemical nitrite has also been found to be almost double the accepted value. According to the chief chemist of ‘Kanpur Jal Sansthan’, Amita Bajpai, the river water is brown and pale yellowish in colour and she also promised that Jal Sansthan would soon send an action plan to the pollution control board regarding the issue and would give suggestions on how to deal

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