No end to endosulfan
India will have to say yes or no to endosulfan coming April, when the Conference of Parties (COP) of the Stockholm Convention meets to decide on a world-wide ban. Atleast 60 countries have already banned its use but Union Environment Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh says, a ban on endosulfan “will have national implications”, in other words, affect India’s agricultural production. By renitha raveendran
P
lease spare me, I don’t want to be interviewed.” This is how a senior scientist responded when Media Voice asked for her views on the pesticide, endosulfan. Ten years ago, a study done under her supervision on the people of Padre village in the Kasargod district of Kerala had shaken the world. The study had reported unusual cases of deformities among the villagers and an alarming level of endosulfan in soil, water, blood samples collected from the village. Following this study, reports establishing links between mysterious diseases in the villages (15) and the aerial spraying of endosulfan in government- owned cashew plantations in the district started pouring in. The study sparked a world-wide debate on the use of this low-cost pesticide, and greatly annoyed the US$100million endosulfan industry which then resorted to threats and court cases against the scientist. There was immense pressure on her to admit that her study was flawed, but, she didn’t
Endosulfan Endosulfan is a synthetic organochlorine compound commonly used as an agricultural insecticide. It is used to control chewing, sucking and boring insects, including aphids, thrips, beetles, foliar feeding caterpillars, mites, borers, cutworms, bollworms, bugs, white fliers, leafhoppers, snails in rice paddies, earthworms in turf, and tsetse flies. India is the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of the pesticide. Major crops to which it is applied include soy, cotton, rice, and tea. in kasargod around 500 people exposed to endosulfan have died. nearly 3,000 continue to suffer from various diseases. Common diseases found here are stag-horn limbs, scale-like skin, protruding tongues, eye deformities, extra fingers and toes, cleft palates, club feet and harelips, hydrocephalus, renal diseases, respiratory disorders, cognitive and emotional deterioration, blindness, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and infertility, artificial limb modification and stunted growth. budge. “I am not surprised that she refused to speak,” an activist working with Thanal, a Kerala-based NGO says. “Who would want to comment on something for which she/he has been harassed for ten long years, just for revealing the truth?” To what extent the industry can go to humiliate campaigners against the killer pesticide
is demonstrated by a cartoon drawn by Rajju Shroff of the Shroff Group that co-owns Excel Crop Care, the largest manufacturer of endosulfan in India. It shows a barely clad woman (which looks strikingly like a caricature of Sunita Narain) rushing out of a bathroom shouting, ‘Help, cockroach!’ A man watching this says, ‘I told you, Sunita, in public, we can attack the pesticide industry... we must use pesticide in our homes.’ Sunita Narain is the director of the Centre for Science and Environment that first broke the story on the endosulfan tragedy in Kasargod. Shroff has even given voice to his intention of taking on those he calls “environmental terrorists”! Beyond the academic embarrassments and vulgar jokes, there are real-time stories of plain, old legal harassment. “There are many SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) suits registered against most of us who are active in campaigning against endosulfan,” says Madhumita of Toxic Link. “There can’t be anything more humiliating than having to be present at the court every other day.” january 2011 |www.mediavoicemag.com | MEDIA VOICE |11