Henri Tiphagne, a Human Rights Lawyer and National Secretary of Human Rights Defenders Alert, India, was at the protest on the day of the Thoothukudi massacre. Henri told Global Witness: “The pollution from the copper plant united people in Thoothukudi from different sections of society. It was directly affecting their lives, their air, their water. For decades they had seen that the air had been polluted. They had seen members of their families gradually pass away… So many people were mobilised to take action, from the city, from rural areas, from surrounding villages.”