4 days ago
Despite ban, tobacco products sale thrives in Tamil Nadu's Tiruchy
TIRUCHY: At Chathiram Bus Stand, a man smokes beneath a 'No Smoking' sign board. Nearby, visibly amidst the crowd, another person rubs tobacco into his palm and packs it into his lip. Despite Rs 33.28 lakh fines under the COTPA Act, 2003, collected between 2017 and 2025, and repeated awareness drives, tobacco use in Tiruchy remains visibly entrenched especially in public spaces.
This, even after the Tamil Nadu Food Safety Commissioner extended the ban on manufacturing, storing, transporting, and selling gutkha and pan masala containing tobacco or nicotine for another year from May 23, 2025, through a gazette notification.
A field visit by TNIE to city shops found chewable tobacco products widely available, often bought by students, youth, heavy vehicle drivers and guest workers. Some shops sold cigarettes without statutory warnings or pictorial displays at their outlet. While open displays of cigarettes have reduced, they are still sold discreetly.
The ban does not cover cigarettes, which remain legal but regulated. In Tiruchy, tea shops often double as informal smoking hubs, where public smoking is rarely questioned "Tea alone doesn't attract customers. If we don't sell cigarettes, they go elsewhere. We run at a loss," said a tea vendor near Beema Nagar. Meanwhile, a popular tea outlet chain with 15 branches across the city has successfully banned tobacco sales. "We've built a brand around clean service. We don't rely on tobacco," said A Nasser Ahamed, owner of one such outlet near Gandhi Market.
