Pharma takes a toll on Patancheru

• “Hyderabad has a case specific problem, as majority of cities in the country where pharma industry is thriving have access to sea to discharge the effluents, unlike Hyderabad”.
• A trip to Patancheru takes about an hour from Hyderabad, with most of the drive being on poor quality roads. At arrival, visitors encounter a vision of “ground zero”: horrific environmental degradation and social deprivation.

Pharma firms employ mostly labour brought in from distant states, living in dormitory-type accommodation. Combined with the lack of timely and affordable health care, residents and workers experience conditions comparable to those of the worst extremes of the Industrial Revolution in Britain

Hans Lofgren an associate professor at Deaking University, Melbourne, and the editor of The Politics of the Pharmaceutical Industry World Pharmacy and India who visited Patancheru several times wrote in his research material that Indian Pharma could face greater hostility from competitors and unless it sets its home in order, the industry is likely to face adversity.

He said the area in Medak District on the fringes of Hyderabad provides a disturbing example of this type of lop-sided industrialisation. Here pollution is among the worst in any location in India. He quoted one expert in the thesis who said, “Hyderabad has a case specific problem, as majority of cities in the country where the pharma industry is thriving have access to sea to discharge the effluents, unlike Hyderabad”.

In Patancheru, environmental regulation has long been known to be dysfunctional, treatment systems are inadequate and effluents overflow directly into the environment, damaging the health of villagers and livestock. Effluents into the soil and water contain toxic materials such as arsenic or cadmium that are absorbed by grazing animals and plants. People in more than twenty pollution-affected villages, predominantly dalits, backward castes and minorities, produce paddy rice, maize, pulses, poultry and eggs, sugarcane, horticultural crops such as mango and guava, aqua-culture products, and raise livestock including goats and buffalos. The distribution of their pollution contaminated products affect consumers in many locations.

While suffering the consequences of environmental degradation, the local population gains few, if any, of the benefits of economic development. Pharma firms employ mostly labour brought in from distant states, living in dormitory-type accommodation. Combined with the lack of timely and affordable health care, residents and workers experience conditions comparable to those of the worst extremes of the Industrial Revolution in Britain.

A trip to Patancheru takes about an hour from Hyderabad, along roads of increasingly poor quality. At arrival, visitors encounter a vision of “ground zero”: horrific environmental degradation and social deprivation. An appalling odour permeates the air. It is easy enough to establish the proximate cause: billowing smokestacks dumping unquantified amounts of pollutants of a whitish nature into the atmosphere. Water bodies display the dark green colour of unknown effluents. Using a stick to scratch the ground next to a dam, the top layer exposes what lies beneath: a jet black muddle. The cows and buffaloes water themselves in the lake, suffering sicknesses, as do the residents and workers.

Local villagers, supported by environmental activists, including Greenpeace India, have for years sought to make their circumstances known to the outside world. A drawn-out struggle for legal redress finally produced a positive outcome when the Pollution Control Board (PCB) of Andhra Pradesh in July ordered the closure of 12 manufacturing plants operated by several pharmaceutical companies, including major firms such as Aurobindo Pharma and Hetero Labs, for allegedly violating pollution norms. The PCB order was stayed by the appellate authority ten days later.

The authority determined, following intense industry lobbying, that the closure notice be suspended and that the firms be able to continue to operate without any hindrance. In its ruling, the appellate authority recommended that the existing ban on industrial expansion be revoked via government order on the grounds that manufacturing processes have allegedly improved resulting in a reduction in pollution. On July 25, 2013, the Government of Andhra Pradesh amended the relevant notification to this effect. To all intents and purpose, there is now carte blanche for the industry to continue polluting production without fear of reprisal.

There is an elaborate regulatory and legal system in India and in Andhra Pradesh which is supposed to ensure not only that drugs are safe, efficacious and of good quality, but that manufacturing meets acceptable environmental and labour standards. In reality, the system is dysfunctional, and appears marked by corruption including industry capture of regulatory agencies. These agencies have little autonomy to constrain the actions of industry and look to remain ineffective in the foreseeable future. Combined with extreme exploitation of labour, this presents challenges for stakeholders and the general public in India and beyond. The case against the polluting industries is now before the National Green Tribunal.

Scholars and activists the world over, concerned about ecology and community health, and all those who respect democracy and human rights, are watching these developments closely. While the shift of pharmaceutical industry away from global north to global south can be seen as democratising development, this cannot be realised or sustained if the costs are shifted on to communities and environment. The corporate rivals in global north could raise the alarm any moment if timely corrective measures are not initiated with a sense of urgency.