The Sterlite saga: from orange clouds to red flags
BCCL
Protestors at Vedanta's Sterlite Copper unit on May 24, 2018; photo by BA Raju/BCCL
Synopsis
Sterlite’s Thoothukudi copper plant used to account for 40% of India’s copper production. It is now shut. ET Prime’s reportage reveals the cause: strange company manoeuvres, a fusion of myriad protest groups, and the government’s inability to see the coming storm.
At ten past eight in the morning, bus number 102 leaves the Anna bus stand in Thoothukudi and takes the Palayamkottai High Road, one of the three arterial roads of the port city. The word ‘Sterlite’ is written prominently in Tamil, among the names of the other villages the bus will pass through. It passes through the South police station, courts, and the VVD (a consumer brand named after its owner VV Dhanushkodi) junction. Before the
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