In a blow to the Perumatty gram panchayat in Kerala's Palakkad district, on April 7, 2005, the Kerala High Court (HC) permitted the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited to resume production at its Plachimada plant. The company can draw not more than 0.5 million litres of water per day. The limit is as per the final suggestions of the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (cwrdm), Kozhikode.

The gram panchayat has been fighting groundwater exploitation by the company (see Down To Earth,