1993 – district collector, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra directed Sterlite to suspend construction work following year-long agitation by local people.

1994 – Sterlite enters Tamil Nadu. NOC given by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) carried a condition that the factory should be located 25 kms from the Gulf of Mannar.

1995 – TNPCB authorizes Sterlite to commence construction though it violated the set condition and the plant was built within 14 kms of Gulf of Mannar. Agitating locals were driven out by the police.

1996 – TNPCB issued the plant licence to operate ignoring the violation of its own conditions. Within months, local residents complained of health hazards.

1997 – A three member committee set up by the Tamil Nadu government to look into the environmental fallout of the project, gave a clean chit.

1998 – National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) found that the plant violated various safety norms.

November 23, 1998 – Madras High Court ordered closure of the factory.

March 2, 1999 – Local residents hospitalised due to gas leak. TNPCB permitted Sterlite to nearly double its production capacity from 40,000 tonnes per annum to 70,000 tonnes per annum.

January 2, 2001 – Residents complained of toxic waste water reportedly flooding into the Silverpuram, Meelavittam and Kaluthaikuttan tanks.

2004 – Against TNPCB’s permission of 70,000 tonnes, Sterlite manufactured 1,75,242 tonnes of copper.

September 21, 2004 – A Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) team upon inspection recommended that the environmental clearance for the company’s proposed expansion from 391 to 900 tonnes per day (3,00,000 tonnes per annum) not be given.

September 22, 2004 – MoEF issued a clearance to Sterlite for plants it had already began to construct.

November 16, 2004 – TNPCB confirmed that the company was engaged in unlicenced production.

2005 – Expansion of smelter to 3,00,000 tonnes per annum. Company received permission to operate its copper smelter plant.

2006 – Expansion of smelter to 400 kilo tones per annum.

2008 – Company further expanded its production.

September 28, 2010 – Madras High Court ordered closure of Sterlite Industries in Thoothukudi citing violations of law and for polluting the environment.

October 1, 2010 – Supreme Court stayed the closure order of the Madras High Court.

March 23, 2013 – Thoothukudi town experienced a massive gas leak.

March 29, 2013 – Again a closure order was given but subsequently the order was lifted.

April 2, 2013 – Supreme Court refused to shut down the plant. However, it ordered the company to pay a fine of Rs 100 crores for violating various norms.

Since February 2018, people of Thoothukudi town and nearby villages affected due the environmental hazards created by the Sterlite Industries were staging protest every day.

May 22, 2018 – Being the 100th day of their protest action, the people of Thoothukudi and nearby villages marched towards the collectorate to demand the closure of the factory. Police opened fire killing 11 people including a woman and a girl.