West Bengal board orders Starmilk unit to close over pollution
The West Bengal Pollution Control Board issued the order against Starmilk Products (P) Ltd after investigating a public complaint. The dairy facility, at Jangalpara in Pursurah, is about 60km from Calcutta. The closure directive will take effect on September 1 unless the company brings its discharge within the board’s limits using a recently installed effluent treatment plant.
The board issued the order on August 6 through its chief engineer for operations and execution. Its technical committee classified the case as suitable for a closure order, but implementation was postponed until August 31 because milk is a perishable and essential commodity.
During the extension, the company must make the new treatment system operational and submit a compliance report by the end of August. The board’s inspection report said the unit had released untreated wastewater by circumventing its treatment system. Inspectors found that the discharge was entering the nearby Akambari Canal.
Samples showed total suspended solids of 2,680 milligrams, against a permitted level of 150 milligrams. Biochemical oxygen demand measured 3,776 milligrams, compared with the regulatory benchmark of 100 milligrams. The board said pollutant concentrations were extremely high relative to the applicable standards and imposed the ₹3.5 lakh penalty.
“We have received the order and are trying to comply with it before the timeline,” Anubhab Sharma, a representative of Starmilk Products, said. Biswajit Mukherjee, president of Paribesh Academy, the nonprofit group that submitted the complaint, said residents had reported the issue and that the organisation had conducted a field inquiry before referring it to the state board.
Mukherjee also said the organisation considered the fine too small and had asked for the money to be used for environmental improvements in the area. WBPCB officials said dairy facilities in Hooghly frequently attracted complaints about water pollution and damage to the local environment. The district has 11 large and medium-sized dairy units, the highest number among Bengal’s districts.
Since 2021, the board has sent several notices to dairy companies in Hooghly over alleged breaches of wastewater standards and inadequate management. The companies named by officials included Dollon Food Products and Rajnandita Milk & Foods in Dadpur, Diamond Dairy in Polba and Nature Dairy in Gurap.
An expert associated with the state board said many plants were designed to handle a specified volume of wastewater but that some units produced beyond that capacity as demand increased. According to the expert, the additional effluent was sometimes discharged directly into water bodies instead of passing through the treatment equipment.
