Leather is considered a luxury item, and people who swear by high fashion would know all about different varieties of leather. Not only that, it is considered to be one of the most durable materials available in the market, especially in harsh winters etc. But it would be good to take a pause to wonder why it is so durable and can survive harsh climatic conditions—because it is an animal’s skin and the animal needs it to survive the harsh climate conditions!
Most of the beautiful leather found in fashion products in Europe in most of the western world comes from other countries, mostly in Asia. So, European fashion industry externalizes the ethical and environmental burden of this leather to other countries!
In India, there are cities and towns known for their leather industries, one of them being Kanpur. In a recent research report, it was found that a lot of the water in Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat and surrounding areas had extremely high levels of heavy metals, all of which come from the run off from leather tanneries in Kanpur. Leather tanneries heavily rely on heavy metals like Chromium and lead for the manufacture of leather as we know it.
This article gives details of the extent of the water pollution and the health emergency caused by the leather tanneries in Jajmau area. In 992 patients examined, atleast 692 had some form of a lung, liver or skin disease due to the water poisoning.
This public health crisis has been detected and the patients diagnosed only now. That leather tanneries pose such risks is a well known fact, and the inaction on the part of the government and all concerned agencies, including National Green Tribunal, over the last few decades, is unforgivable. The people in the surrounding areas have likely been suffering in many ways due to this poisoning for a long time. They have been diagnosed and tested only now, because these type of tests are rarely ever carried out in an unbaised way in India.
The book Cownomics dedicates an entire chapter to the bane of the leather industry, and the well-known and well-documented incidents of environmental degradation caused by the leather tanneries in Bangladesh and other areas of India.
The leather industry needs an urgent intervention, and the world must collectively understand that harming animals has a karmic fallout, which hurts humans back in the form of such health crises.
Cownomics 