White froth appears on Periyar River near Edayar industrial area in Keralam

Water in the Periyar river near the Edayar industrial area turned white and developed a layer of frothy foam on Tuesday, prompting the Kerala State Pollution Control Board to collect water samples to determine whether the incident was caused by illegal waste discharge. Local residents noticed the froth across the river near the Pathalam bund from around 7.30 a.m and alerted officials at the Environment Surveillance Centre of the board in Eloor.

Purushan Eloor, spokesperson for the Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samithi, said that a similar incident had occurred in the region on August 22, 2026. “We suspect that the discharge of untreated waste from the bonemeal and chicken waste rendering units in Edayar industrial area may have resulted in the white froth visible on the river since morning, he said.

The officials at the Environment Surveillance Centre said that they were awaiting the results of the samples collected from the river to confirm the exact reason behind the incident. The incident occurred a day after a meeting convened by the board and attended by the elected representatives of Eloor municipality, Kadungallor panchayat and environmentalists. Participants raised complaints about air pollution allegedly caused by erring units in the Edayar industrial area.

Show-cause notices

The board authorities have decided to issue show-cause notices to nearly 20 such units, asking why action should not be taken for the lapses in implementing necessary measures to check air pollution. A study by the CSIR–National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, in September 2023, had found that biofilters used to remove pollutants and odour from air impacted by industrial and manufacturing processes were not functioning properly in units involved in rubber, meat and waste processing.