The Plachimada Coca-Cola struggle was a series of protests to close the Coca-Cola factory in the village of Plachimada, Palakkad District, Kerala in the early 2000s. Villagers noted that soon after the factory opened, their wells started to run dry and the available water turned contaminated and toxic. Soon, waste from the factory was passed off to farmers in the area as fertiliser. The controversy became "one of the most studied corporate controversies" in recent times.
History of Plachimada Plant
HCCB’s Plachimada plant was launched and became operational in 2000. The 34.64 acres of HCCB factory produced beverages Limca, Fanta, Thums Up, Sprite, Kinley and Maaza etc. Over 400 local residents were provided direct employment.
The factory was closed from 2004 to May 2021 following local agitations. In July 2017, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages informed the Supreme Court that it does not intend to commence manufacturing operations at its plant located at Plachimada (Palakkad district) in Kerala. The Bench comprising Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul made a note of the statement and in its order dated July 13, 2017, stated, “We record the aforesaid statement and, therefore, dispose of these appeals as being become infructuous in terms of the signed order.”
The court was hearing seven civil appeals on the issue. The petitioners’ counsels decided not to oppose the issue.
History of Plachimada Struggle
On 22 April 2002, the villagers, mostly Adivasi, began to protest in front of the factory by blocking its entrance. The impromptu protest continued and lasted for years, by gathering support from environmental groups, locals and national political parties and activists. Continued protests and litigation eventually helped the people of Plachimada to shut down the factory in March 2004.
While a government committee estimated the damages to be around 216 crore ($30 million), compensation has yet to be paid to the villagers.
On 8 October 1999, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private (HCBLP), a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company, applied for a license at Perumatty panchayat to establish a factory in Plachimada. On 27 January 2000 the company was granted permission to open the factory. The firm purchased a roughly plot, which had previously been used to cultivate paddy, peanuts and vegetables. The factory employed 130 permanent workers and approximately 250 temporary laborers. Brands produced at the Plachimada factory included Coca-Cola, Limca, Fanta, Thums Up, Sprite, Kinley Soda, and Maaza. The factory used 500,000 litres of groundwater a day for its production after obtaining permission from Perumatty panchayat, which was later confirmed by the Kerala High Court.
Villagers living nearby the factory started reporting increased water pollution six months after the factory was opened. Accessing water for agricultural purposes became an issue.
The factory had also made a practice of distributing its sludge waste from the manufacturing process as free fertilizer to the villagers. In 2003, a BBC journalist visited the village to investigate the claims made by the villagers that the sludge was contaminated. As part of his reporting for BBC Radio 4's Face the Facts, he has picked up samples of the sludge and sent to the United Kingdom to be analyzed. A lab at the University of Exeter found unacceptably high levels of cadmium and lead in the sludge. Lead is toxic to human development and the nervous system, while cadmium is a documented carcinogen.
Mounting pressure on the Kerala Government to shut down the factory, Greenpeace Campaign Head Ameer Shahul shared the University of Exeter analysis report to the Kerala State Pollution Control Board and to the local media, and demanded permanent closure of the factory. Soon, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board confirmed these test results and ordered The Coca-Cola Company to stop distribution of its waste and to recover what had been dispersed in the past.