From 2022 to 2024, Jenefa India was the target of protests which resulted in clashes between local residents and police on at least four occasions, including cases of civil unrest and physical violence, according to an investigation by The Outlaw Ocean Project. The actions of the plant were also alleged to have caused at least three environmental violations during this period, resulting in respiratory issues and contaminated drinking water.

On April 19, 2024, police violently clashed with local residents during a demonstration that sought to shut down Jenefa India fishmeal facility and other fish processing plants near Pottaloorani, a village in the state of Tamil Nadu in the southern tip of India.¹ Local anger over these problems had been growing for some time. A year earlier, on May 15, 2023, residents submitted a petition to district officials to shut down the plants.² When their demands went unmet, residents took to the streets in 2024. As residents staged a sit-in protest in the streets, a group of masked men carrying knives, bottles, and wooden logs drove into the village in an SUV and attacked them. Villagers accused the gang of working with the authorities. “The police wanted to incite violence” and frame them for the clash, protesters told The Hindu.³ Residents lobbed stones at the SUV and pounced on squad cars, damaging the vehicles.⁴

The events had political implications too. Protest leaders called on the demonstrators to boycott the parliamentary vote taking place on the same day as another way to voice local outrage at what they said was an unwillingness to close the fishmeal and fish processing factories that were polluting their community.⁵ More than 900 out of a total of 931 voters in the village boycotted the parliamentary elections, according to local news reports.⁶

Residents were angry for several reasons. First, there was the foul smell which locals attributed to several plants, including Jenefa India, in the Thoothukudi district.⁷ Local residents described this stench as being unbearable.⁸ “We cannot breathe properly as the stinking odor causes breathing problems to children, senior citizens, patients and pregnant women,” one resident told The Hindu in 2023.⁹ A December 2023 report by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board concluded that the plants’ stench was caused by exhaust air from the processors and water purification systems. The second complaint pertained to plant waste contaminating local water and air, including that used for fields, livestock and drinking. “Cattle die after consuming water from the pond while grazing,” a villager told the New Indian Express in 2024, adding that factory wastewater was being routinely discharged into the Perumal Nayakar Oorani, a reservoir used for drinking.¹⁰

In May 2024, a month after the violent clashes with police and the election boycott, local residents built a shed on the banks of a pond. It was meant as a meeting place to discuss the concerns with organizations and reporters visiting the area interested in the unrest, according to The New Indian Express. Police tried to dismantle the shed but the villagers intervened.¹¹ In June 2024, local officials inspected the Jenefa India plant, along with two other plants. They discovered high levels of chemicals in the groundwater.¹² In October 2024, four members of the Pottalurani village council submitted resignation letters to protest the district authorities’ inaction. “When a ward member is not even allowed to register their villagers’ grievances during a public meeting,” they asked, “then what power do we wield as their representatives?”¹³

In early November 2024, district officials assigned monitors to document the plants’ odor emissions throughout the day. However, villagers said that the plants typically emitted rancid smells after 11pm, when fish was boiled overnight.¹⁴

On November 24, 2024, tensions erupted again as area residents held another protest calling for the shutdown of the fish processing units and the termination of what they say are bogus police charges against them for causing public nuisance.¹⁵ “Police are filing false cases to stop us from protesting, but we are not going to stop for any reason,” a demonstrator told The Hindu. Despite their ongoing efforts, “the district administration showed no interest in listening to them and their grievances,” residents said. In fact, one protester noted that local officials were “repeatedly granting permission” for the construction of new fish processing facilities.”¹⁶

Jenefa India failed to respond to a request for comment.¹⁷