Kadhiravan Tamil Daily

THUTHUKUDI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA, May 3, 2003: Village Kottamadaikadu in Kayalpattinam block of Thuthukkudi district in Tamilnadu is situated on the sea shore of Bay of Bengal. A major industrial unit, M/s Dharangadhara Chemical Works (DCW), manufacturing caustic soda, was the pride of the village, providing job opportunities to locals. But it rendered itself an eyesore to the people when it sought to dump its acid slurry on a five-acre plot on the beach, which is bound to end up as a threat to the ecosystem, especially the subsoil water table feeding a population of one hundred thousand in the surrounding villages. When DCW men dug up a one square kilometer trench to dump the slurry, statues of deities and remains of 1,000-year temple belonging to the early Chola period surfaced. These icons as well as a few puja utensils, found during the second round of digging in June, were reportedly handed over to a government official at Tiruchendur by the Company officials. But the villagers, some of whom are eyewitnesses to the presence of a six-foot stone icon of Kali at the dug up site, questioned the mysterious disappearance of the same. Later it was found lying in a lake inside a forest nearby. The government official retrieved it and kept it under his custody.