India's scrap tyre imports reach 1.398 million tonnes in FY2024
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
- The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
Scrap tyre imports into India rose from 264,000 tonnes in FY2021 to 1.398 million tonnes in FY2024, according to a BBC investigation carried by Resource. The report says about half of India's roughly 2,000 pyrolysis plants are illegal.
What happened
Import figures cited in the report, drawn from Deccan Chronicle and Commerce Ministry data, show scrap tyre imports rising from 264,000 tonnes in FY2021 to 1.398 million tonnes in FY2024.
The investigation reports that about 2,000 pyrolysis plants operate in India and that about half of them are illegal.
The report says a UK agency holds India responsible for the tyres after they are imported.
The report's headline says millions of end-of-life tyres have been exported to illegal pyrolysis facilities.
In court and with insurers
Lawsuits and rulings
Insurers
What we don't know
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: an explosion at Wada, Maharashtra, killed four people (source code given, no link recorded).
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: scrap tyre imports rose fivefold between 2021 and 2024, and only 10–15% of imports were replacement tyres (source codes given, no links recorded).
- None on record The sources reviewed do not say who gains from the imports or who is harmed by the plants.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Press and investigations
Connected cases
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