Chrome Valley's pollution conundrum

Open-cast mining has ravaged landscapes and contaminated water bodies at the country's largest chrome mining site

No other mineral in India other than chrome ore is to be found in excess of 97 per cent of the identified resource in just one centre. Appropriately then, Sukinda Valley in Odisha, where the country’s leading producers of chrome ore have converged, has come to be known as the Chrome Valley. 

From Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys (IMFA) to the ferro alloys and minerals division of Tata Steel in the private sector to Odisha Mining Corporation and Infrastructure Development Company in the state sector, nine groups operate 11 mines in a cluster in the Chrome Valley next to one another.