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With the Stockholm Convention of the Review Committee on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) deciding to ban Endosulfan globally, the first part of the mission of anti-Endosulfan activists and all the victims of the pesticide in Kasaragod has been accomplished. “But we have miles and miles more to go,” says Dr YS Mohankumar, a physician who first identified the health hazards that the pesticide caused.
Anti-Endosulfan Committee and the other collectives in Kasaragod which have been fighting against the killer pesticide now say that the global ban is not enough to ensure the riddance of Endosulfan from their area and the entire nation. “India has got 11 years to phase out the pesticide. That is a matter of concern. We now need awareness programmes,” says the doctor.
Anti-pesticide crusaders in Kasaragod, where Endosulfan has killed about 1,000 people and caused mysterious diseases and deformities to nearly 10,000 others, would now begin efforts to extend their struggle to the national level in association with other environmental, rights and political outfits.
Office-bearers of the Anti-Endosulfan Committee of Kasaragod told newsmen on Saturday that they were preparing to launch an awareness drive with the goal of wiping out all hazardous pesticides from the agriculture sector in the context of India getting up to eleven years’ time to phase out Endosulfan.
Sudheer Kumar, convener of the anti-Endosulfan action council, called for prosecution proceedings against State-run Plantation Corporation of Kerala, which turned 11 panchayats of Kasaragod district into a playground of death and diseases by aerially spraying Endosulfan on the soil and water bodies in the effort to kill the pests in its cashew estates for over two decades.
He called for distribution of immediate compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each of the victims and establishment of a tribunal to decide on the compensation. Sudheer Kumar said the council would continue with its struggle demanding the establishment of a medical college in the affected area for providing specialized treatment to the victims.
Sujatha (name changed), a 25-year-old mother in Enmakaje village of Kasaragod who got her second pregnancy terminated for fear of delivering a baby with Endosulfan-induced congenital diseases and deformities, said she was happy for the ban but would be happier if all pesticides were banned. A patient of pesticide-generated diseases herself, Sujatha said, “Mothers should not be afraid of delivering babies anymore.”
Kasaragod’s fight against the killer pesticide had started within two years of the start of poison rain in the cashew plantations with Dr Mohankumar identifying serious diseases caused by Endosulfan for the first time in 1980. Though he tried to bring this to the attention of the medical fraternity through his articles, the effort did not succeed.
The first success in the war against Endosulfan in Kasaragod came when the first anti-pesticide crusader, Leelakumari Amma, a government employee, won a stay from the Kerala High Court on spraying of the pesticide in one of the 11 panchayats. With the explosion of death and diseases in the plantations by the turn of the millennium, the State government banned the pesticide in 2002.
In the context of the POP Review Committee decision to ban Endosulfan globally, the anti-pesticide activists in Kasaragod met to take stock of the situation and to decide on the course of action to be followed in the future. The meeting also congratulated the frontline warriors of the battle and relief money for victims was distributed.
With the Stockholm Convention of the Review Committee on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) deciding to ban Endosulfan globally, the first part of the mission of anti-Endosulfan activists and all the victims of the pesticide in Kasaragod has been accomplished. “But we have miles and miles more to go,” says Dr YS Mohankumar, a physician who first identified the health hazards that the pesticide caused.
Anti-Endosulfan Committee and the other collectives in Kasaragod which have been fighting against the killer pesticide now say that the global ban is not enough to ensure the riddance of Endosulfan from their area and the entire nation. “India has got 11 years to phase out the pesticide. That is a matter of concern. We now need awareness programmes,” says the doctor.
Anti-pesticide crusaders in Kasaragod, where Endosulfan has killed about 1,000 people and caused mysterious diseases and deformities to nearly 10,000 others, would now begin efforts to extend their struggle to the national level in association with other environmental, rights and political outfits.
Office-bearers of the Anti-Endosulfan Committee of Kasaragod told newsmen on Saturday that they were preparing to launch an awareness drive with the goal of wiping out all hazardous pesticides from the agriculture sector in the context of India getting up to eleven years’ time to phase out Endosulfan.
Sudheer Kumar, convener of the anti-Endosulfan action council, called for prosecution proceedings against State-run Plantation Corporation of Kerala, which turned 11 panchayats of Kasaragod district into a playground of death and diseases by aerially spraying Endosulfan on the soil and water bodies in the effort to kill the pests in its cashew estates for over two decades.
He called for distribution of immediate compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each of the victims and establishment of a tribunal to decide on the compensation. Sudheer Kumar said the council would continue with its struggle demanding the establishment of a medical college in the affected area for providing specialized treatment to the victims.
Sujatha (name changed), a 25-year-old mother in Enmakaje village of Kasaragod who got her second pregnancy terminated for fear of delivering a baby with Endosulfan-induced congenital diseases and deformities, said she was happy for the ban but would be happier if all pesticides were banned. A patient of pesticide-generated diseases herself, Sujatha said, “Mothers should not be afraid of delivering babies anymore.”
Kasaragod’s fight against the killer pesticide had started within two years of the start of poison rain in the cashew plantations with Dr Mohankumar identifying serious diseases caused by Endosulfan for the first time in 1980. Though he tried to bring this to the attention of the medical fraternity through his articles, the effort did not succeed.
The first success in the war against Endosulfan in Kasaragod came when the first anti-pesticide crusader, Leelakumari Amma, a government employee, won a stay from the Kerala High Court on spraying of the pesticide in one of the 11 panchayats. With the explosion of death and diseases in the plantations by the turn of the millennium, the State government banned the pesticide in 2002.
In the context of the POP Review Committee decision to ban Endosulfan globally, the anti-pesticide activists in Kasaragod met to take stock of the situation and to decide on the course of action to be followed in the future. The meeting also congratulated the frontline warriors of the battle and relief money for victims was distributed.
