It was in February 2001
that Down To Earth broke the story. A
link was established between the unusually high incidence of deformities and diseases in
Padre — a village in Kerala’s Kasaragod district — and endosulfan, an
organochlorine pesticide. The Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) had been spraying
endosulfan since the mid-1970s on its cashew plantations. The people of Padre had long
been waging a lonely battle against the spraying of the pesticide. Laboratory analysis
conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, revealed that all
samples collected from the village contained very high levels of the pesticide that has
ironically been either banned or restricted in many countries.
As the news was splashed
in the national media, public pressure forced a number of decisions. The National Human
Rights Commission asked government agencies, including the Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR), to act. A study by the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH)
got underway. The Kerala government too set up a committee headed by eminent engineer A
Achyuthan to probe the matter. Both the Union and state governments banned aerial spraying
of endosulfan. The crusade seemed headed towards its logical conclusion.
Instead, the pesticide
lobby opened up a new front as it launched an offensive to fight for its existence. At
stake was the fate of an industry worth Rs 4,100 crore. Thus began a virulent campaign
that involved top scientists, agriculturalists and officials. The agenda was two-fold: to
discredit CSE’s study and prove that endosulfan was safe and harmless. The campaign
strategy had three components: disinformation, manufacturing data and influencing
government agencies to lift the ban.
Soon articles, interviews
and advertisements began appearing in the media painting endosulfan as a safe pesticide.
Meanwhile, an industry-sponsored report was being concocted — PCK had commissioned
the Fredrick Institute of Plant Protection and Toxicology (FIPPAT) in Kancheepuram, Tamil
Nadu, to conduct a study. Not surprisingly, the results completely absolved endosulfan.
Activists opposing endosulfan were threatened with legal action. And this was just the
beginning. From hobnobbing with scientists and organising five-star parties to sending
emissaries or accompanying officials to meetings, the pesticide lobby used every rule in
the book and outside it to kill a people’s campaign.
In many ways, the
endosulfan battle is a litmus test for the industry — a defeat here could not only
hurt profits, but also encourage more communities to come out in the open and more
pesticides being put on the hit list. For now it seems that their strategy is working. In
March this year, the ban on endosulfan was lifted under mysterious circumstances. This,
when the confidential NIOH report — that Down To Earth is in
possession of — clearly implicates endosulfan as the causal agent for the diseases.
Clearly, the silent screams of Padre’s residents for environmental justice have
fallen on deaf ears.
KUSHAL
P S YADAV, who went under cover to dig out the dirt, and S S JEEVAN track the murky ways of an industry that prefers to
profit over people’s health |
