February 2, 2000

IS THE KERALA PESTICIDE TRAGEDY IS A CREATION OF THE PLANTATION CORPORATION OF KERALA?

Muthakka Shetty, a resident of Padre village in Kerala, has 900 times the pesticide endosulfan in her blood that is allowed in water. Her elder son has cerebral palsy; the younger one is mentally retarded. Most of her neighbouring families face similar health problems, all related to the central nervous system -- mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy... they are all very common among children under 20 years of age.

The Plantation Corporation of Kerala, owned by the Kerala state government, has been spraying endosulfan through helicopters in the area for over two decades. It asks the family to sign a statement saying the pesticide has nothing to do with their children's ailments. Scientific literature shows endosulfan can affect the foetus, that it has the capacity to affect the unborn child.

For 10 years, the mystery perplexed a doctor practicing medicine in and around Padre village of Kasaragod district, Kerala. Why were so many people -- children in particular -- suffering from disorders of the central nervous system? On December 26, 2000, some residents were protesting against aerial spraying of endosulfan in the area. The doctor, Mohana Kumar Y S, asked: Do the maladies have something to do with the pesticide? The medical toxicology textbooks corroborated the grounds for his suspicion. Media began noticing the maladies.

But there was no evidence that endosulfan spraying was affecting the village, forget about any studies to prove that the diseases were caused or aggravated by the pesticide. CSE offered to get samples from the village tested at its recently set up Environment Monitoring Laboratory.

All the samples had pesticide residues way above the limits set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Human blood and milk, animal tissue and milk, soil, vegetables, fruits, butter, coconut oil... everything showed enormous amounts of the pesticides. Water from streams, too, was laced with the pesticide that is not readily soluble in water.