Directed by the Gujarat High Court, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (gpcb) has asked the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (neeri), Nagpur, to prepare a new set of standards based on the assimilative capacity of river Amalakhari in south Gujarat.

The river receives effluents from the three chemical industrial areas of Ankleshwar, Panoli and Jagedia. Effluents from the industries are highly toxic and the court felt that the present standards were too lax. Acting on a public interest litigation filed by the Narmada Bachao Samiti, a Gujarat-based non-governmental organisation, the court directed the gpcb to reconsider the present standards for the discharge of effluents and set up new standards. Amalakhari flows parallel to the Narmada river and joins the estuary at the Bay of Khambath together with the Sabarmati and Mahi rivers.