Mining firm Vedanta has approached the Madras High Court seeking directions to the Tamil Nadu government to form an expert panel to assess the feasibility of its proposed green copper project in Thoothukudi district. The state pollution control board rejected the company's application in January. The court has asked for the government's response by February 26.
Mining firm Vedanta moved the Madras High Court on Wednesday seeking directions to the Tamil Nadu government to constitute an expert panel to examine the feasibility of permitting its proposed green copper project in Thoothukudi district. The move comes days after the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) rejected the firm's application to operate the facility at the site of its defunct Sterlite plant.
The Sterlite copper plant, which began operations in 1997, faced widespread protests from local residents over concerns about air and groundwater pollution and its impact on public health. In May 2018, police firing on demonstrators opposing the plant's proposed expansion left 13 people dead, sparking nationwide outrage. The Tamil Nadu government subsequently ordered the unit's permanent closure, a decision later upheld by the courts, and the plant has remained shut since.
Vedanta contends that the closure has increased India's reliance on copper imports and argues that its proposed "green copper" facility offers an environmentally compliant alternative at the same site. The company told the court that the new plant will be based on "fundamentally different and distinct" technologies from the earlier smelting operations and will adopt environmentally superior processes aimed at reducing emissions, hazardous waste, and slag generation.
Senior counsel Satish Parasaran, appearing for Vedanta, argued that the TNPCB rejected the application arbitrarily, without prior notice or affording the company a hearing. He called for an expert committee comprising representatives from the state and union governments to examine the project. Vedanta also sought interim permission to access the Sterlite plant premises for preparatory activities.
The Tamil Nadu government, through Additional Advocate General Ravindran, countered that Vedanta was "trying to pour old wine into a new bottle" and simply rebranding it as "Green Copper." He argued that the company should have pursued a statutory appeal against the TNPCB's order rather than invoking the high court's writ jurisdiction. The AAG emphasized that environmental protection must take precedence over the economic considerations highlighted by the company.