The Indian rapper Sonia Ashraf’s tune “Kodaikanal Won’t” rightly reaped limelight worldwide with her musical protest against Unilever Hindustan polluting her hometown. Now the British-Dutch giant has hit back in the response of the viral video.

Seven days after the release of the social media success, Unilever broke the silence and expressed its concerns on the mercury poisoning in Kodaikanal via its thermometer factory in 2001.


Read more: Indian Rapper Reacts at Unilever for Poisoning her City – Watch Video

According to reports, this episode affected the lives of hundreds of former workers and contaminated the forest area around.

In an official statement on their website, Unilever revealed, We closed down the factory and launched an investigation into this matter after it arose in 2001. While extensive studies on the health of our former workers and the Kodaikanal environment have not found any evidence of harm, we continue to take this issue very seriously and it’s one we are keen to see resolved

Unveiling more detail, the corporate behemoth mentioned that they are striving hard to nip the issue in the bud.

“We have been working hard to find a fair and mutually satisfactory resolution at the suggestion of the Madras High Court and have had more than ten meetings with our former employees’ representatives since 2014. However, achieving this will require all stakeholders – including employee representatives, NGOs and legal representatives – to get behind these efforts and agree on an outcome.”

What’s more, Unilever even took to twitter to block the stacking pile of accusations in its name.

Soon after Unilever’s reaction to “Kodaikanal Won’t”, India’s environmental activist Nityanand Jayaraman, working with the city’s factory workers for 14 years, posted this reply on his Facebook page.

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The rap inspired by Nicki Minaj’s melody “Anaconda”  has recorded 1.7 million times, within a mere week of its release