Leather and its products are the sources of employment, export and foreign exchange earnings for many developing countries. Leather industries are often blamed for the environmental damage it creates. In the absence of tanneries, the slaughter houses would have faced serious disposal problems of skin and hides and resulted in environmental disaster. Cleaner technologies are applied to reduce the environmental impact of leather production. With the cleaner technologies followed in many tanneries, they are successfully operated in the centers of the cities. The main objective of the present study is to understand the leather process and its various environmental impacts related to it. The water consumption for the production of leather from one tone of raw hides is around 15000 to 40000 litres and 110 to 260 litres per sheep skin. Quality chemicals and optimum dosing in every process can lead to lower pollution level and thus reduce the environmental impact. Environment friendly advanced technologies are followed in the tanneries on the basis of recycling and recovering techniques that lead to the improvement of leather quality. The wastewater from the tanneries been treated in the effluent treatment plants using Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology and converted into reusable water for the tannery processes and the reject from the RO treatment being evaporated either by solar system or by mechanical evaporation and converted into salt. Thus the environmental impact of tannery industry in Tamil Nadu, India has drastically reduced by achieving Zero Liquid Discharge system.