"India's Barefoot Lawyers", 8 Aug 2017

Two years ago…road-construction company…IRB Infrastructure Developers established an open-air factory just across a path, and upwind, from [a] village in Karnataka State,…India. Here stone-crushing machines pulverize piles of rocks while other machines mix crushed stone with hot tar, cement and chemicals…

Bogribail residents grow rice and trees…Ravi Gouda said the dust has hindered the flowering of the trees, damaging the harvests. It also has contaminated the villages’ open wells.

And the dust does who-knows-what to the lungs of the 250 people who live there…

Bogribail had been asking IRB and government officials for compensation for these problems, and had gotten nothing. Villagers did not ask IRB or the government to stop or diminish the pollution, because they didn’t know that the factory’s practices violated numerous regulations.

Then Maruti Gouda [a paralegal working for Namati] took the case…

…[And taught] residents the laws and regulations about pollution. He helped them collect photos and other evidence. He held discussions about remedies…

[C]ompany representatives came through Bogribail with compensation to villagers for crop damage…[and] for damage to health…

…[A] local member of the pollution control board recently wrote a report about the factory. “There are no major violations,” he said…

...IRB sent this statement: “All obligations set by the nodal agency are being followed at the best possible means and ways. However, while expressing our serious concerns on the issues raised, we assure that they would be looked into and resolved amicably.”