White froth blankets Periyar near Edayar; PCB probes illegal discharge
Frothy white layer spotted on Periyar River near Edayar industrial area; samples sent for testing to check illegal waste discharge.
A layer of white froth appeared on the Periyar River near the Edayar industrial area on Tuesday morning, prompting the Kerala State Pollution Control Board to launch an investigation. Local residents first noticed the foam spread across the river near the Pathalam bund around 7:30 a.m. and alerted the board's Environment Surveillance Centre in Eloor.
Officials collected water samples from the affected stretch to determine whether the froth resulted from illegal discharge of untreated waste. The board said it is awaiting laboratory results to confirm the exact cause.
Purushan Eloor, spokesperson for the Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samithi, said a similar incident had occurred in the region on August 22, 2026. He suspected that untreated waste from bonemeal and chicken waste rendering units in the Edayar industrial area could be responsible for the white froth visible since morning.
The development came a day after a meeting convened by the board, attended by elected representatives of Eloor municipality, Kadungallor panchayat and environmentalists. Participants raised complaints about air pollution allegedly caused by erring units in the industrial area.
Following the meeting, the board decided to issue show-cause notices to nearly 20 units, asking why action should not be taken for failing to implement measures to check air pollution. A September 2023 study by the CSIR–National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, had found that biofilters meant to remove pollutants and odour from industrial emissions were not functioning properly in units involved in rubber, meat and waste processing.