Kanpur is India's largest and oldest industrial city and the economic capital of Uttar Pradesh. The leather industry in Kanpur started in the 19th century when the British army used the area as a base. The demand for harnesses, harnesses, and boots for the British Army created a thriving industry. Two companies established then, the Government Harness and Harness Factory and the Copper Allen Company, continued to serve the British Army between two wars. After independence in 1947, production shifted to domestic products, now exported worldwide. There are over 400 tanneries in the city, 90 of which produce vegetable-tanned leather. While various leather goods can be found in Kanpur, its main line is footwear. Head to Meston Road in Bada Chauraha for shoes, bags, and accessories. Kanpur is the largest and oldest industrial city in the most populous Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. One of the most prominent industries in the town is tanning, the process of transforming animal skins and hides to produce leather. In and around Kanpur, hundreds of small, medium, and large tanneries process a variety of animal skins, and the leather produced is processed into a variety of leather products, including shoes, garments, belts, and bags for the European market and North America.
Though the success of the leather industry has boosted local and national economies, it has come at a cost to the environment and the health of local residents and leather workers. The tanning process often uses toxic chemicals and produces acidic wastewater. When sewage from the tannery is discharged untreated, it contaminates soil, groundwater, waterways, and the nearby Ganges. The Kanpur Leather Development Project, conducted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), introduces cleaner technologies to help tanneries reduce negative impacts on human health and the environment, as well as save on water and energy costs. Cleaning technologies introduced include treatment of frozen hides, dehairing/liming, desalting of hides, lime liquor recovery, use of water-saving devices in meat trimmers, and use of solar energy to generate hot water and hot air systems. Since the project's launch in November 2015, the introduction of these technological innovations in 17 tanneries of different sizes and different sub-clusters in Kanpur has shown a significant reduction in the amount of organic and organic wastewater inorganic pollutants and heavy metals. Generation of waste and hazardous waste in general, and removal of water and energy consumption. This year UNIDO, as part of the project, in collaboration with the Leather Export Council and the Unnao Leather Cluster Development Company in Kanpur, organized an innovation prize competition to focus on tanneries in Kanpur that have successfully implemented clean technologies.
The winner of the inaugural competition was announced at an award ceremony in Kanpur on July 21. A jury of eminent industry representatives and international experts awarded the prizes to Kings International Ltd, a large leather-to-leather company (2nd runner-up: AKI India Ltd), and Heena Leather Exims, a small tannery that produced hides into semi-finished products. Products - Finished (Secondary: Tej Industries). Founded in 1994, Kings International Ltd employs approximately 275 workers and processes cowhides from wet salted hides to finished hides, producing leather products such as harnesses and saddles, pet and hunting accessories, bags, handbags, belts, and bags. The company was selected as a leader in its category for advancements in energy and water conservation, waste management, resource recovery and reuse, technological innovation, worker safety, and occupational health. In addition to introducing at least ten measures to monitor, control, and prevent pollution at the source, Kings also introduced energy conservation and management systems to reduce the company's carbon output. The latter incorporates the installation of around 100 pneumatic fans in the tannery shed and the first phase of a solar power plant which will run the entire factory using solar energy.
For its part, Heena Leather Exims, winner of the Small Tanneries category, was recognized for its water conservation and primary wastewater treatment measures. In the 1990s, the leather industry in Kanpur employed 1 million workers (no official figures available), according to IndiaSpend surveys of government and leather industry officials. Of the 400 leather tanneries, 176 of 400 leather tanneries closed in 10 years - the secretary asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media - have halved, according to a co-secretary of the industrial sector of the UP. But the income from the car is irregular, ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 per month. So, they are about to start designing and repairing the "upper" (the upper that contains the tongue) at some shoe factories in Noida, located in the UP region, an extension of the Delhi metropolitan area, the wealthiest province of India, Calculated by per capita income. Global demand for leather, mainly from advanced economies, declined after 2014. This can be attributed to slowdowns in European and Chinese economies. Indian leather exports fell 4% in 2015-2016 after six years of growth, but exports from Kanpur fell 11% over the same period.
Kanpur suffered particularly in the shoe components and finished leather goods categories. Saddlery - leather equipment for riding - is almost entirely exported from Kanpur, and its demand has not been affected but has stagnated. Environmental regulations imposed on tanneries limit the finances of the industry. The establishment of the National Green Court (NGT) in 2010 and its strict monitoring of pollution levels led to the closure of 128 of Kanpur's 400 tanneries. NGT's main bench also has at least 500 cases against other leather units, as shown by its filing records. Before 2014, around 1,000 cattle were brought to the largest slaughterhouse in Kanpur. Last year, after three years of political turmoil and Hindu outrage, that number fell to 500, and after the exchange of banknotes - 86% of banknotes by value is colloquially known as scrapping - the number has fallen to less than 100, an industry representative told IndiaSpend on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. These numbers are now slowly increasing.
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