Beautiful lakes, silent hills coated with eucalyptus and pine trees, misty mornings ascertaining a perennially cool weather, Kodaikanal comes across as a perfect tourist destination in southern India. But even this picture perfect landscape has not escaped the harsh consequences of man’s eternal greed. It is a story of suffering on account of exposure to toxic substances, of human kind in a battle for survival in the face of negligent corporate policies and ignorant government.

It all began in 1983, when a leading multinational Hindustan Lever (a 51 percent subsidiary of Unilever and an Anglo- Dutch Corporation) started its operations in Kodaikanal, to meet the growing market requirement of mercury thermometers, a product which was banned in most parts of the world. Overlooking the ambivalent nature of the product, the company’s board of directors were willing to turn a blind eye to the cost this venture bore in terms of human life. For them it was simply a question of profits, producing about 165 million mercury thermometers over 18 years.

In 2001, Tones of broken glasses of thermometer waste from the factory were found dumped carelessly with the local scarp merchant. The merchant had plans of selling it off to various bangle manufactures in Madurai and Coimbatore. About 400 angry residents of Kodaikanal with the help Palni Hill Conservation Council (PHCC) and Greenpeace walked down to the factory gate to demand an explanation and immediate shut down of the factory. HLL has made desperate attempts to avoid liability for charges of having dispersed mercury in sensitive forest watershed, contaminating over 1000 people who worked, their families who have been exposed to the mercury vapors. Unknown about the consciences of hazardous environment and poisonous nature of the element, hundreds of workers were handling raw mercury without any protective clothing or breathing masks. Most of them have afflicted Kidney, Heart or Brain damaged. There are regular reports of uncontrolled convulsion, writing or doing any daily chores and particularly dangerous to fetuses, women of child-bearing years, pregnant woman and young children. Already about 18 men (with an average age of 32) and 8 children have died with similar symptoms.

In 2003, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) conducted a survey of the fishes in the Kodai Lake and found extremely high mercury levels of 1.32mg per cubic metre in this region, which is about 2640 times higher than permissible level of 0.5-10 nanogram per cubic metre. But even after this shocking exposure fishing still continues at the lake. Another report by Dames and Moore suggests mercury in the soil around the HLL thermometer factory and the slopes leading to the forest area is 600-800 times more to the permissible limit for receiving bodies.