A court in southern India has stopped a multinational firm from restarting its copper-processing plant, which was shut down two years ago following a protest that claimed 13 lives including those of four Catholics.

Madras High Court in Tamil Nadu State on Aug. 18 dismissed a petition by London-based Vedanta Limited seeking permission to reopen its multi-million-dollar plant in Tuticorin district.
“The court has done the right thing. It reflects the will of the people. The plant was instrumental in causing immense environmental pollution,” Bishop Stephan Antony Pillai of Tuticorin told UCA News on Aug. 19.

The plant was shut down in May 2018 following a three-month public protest.

At least 13 people were killed and more than 100 injured when police opened fire on unarmed protesters on May 22 and 23. A Catholic priest was also among the injured.

“Our groundwater, soil and the ecology got polluted from the waste emitted from the plant as the company officials were callous in protecting the environment,” Bishop Pillai said.

The effect of the pollution “was so much that we did not get proper rain and a large number of our people suffered cancer, breathlessness, skin diseases, tuberculosis, among other illnesses,” he said.

“We experience better air and water quality, and we are beginning to get rain now.”