Growing awareness, strong protests

M. RAGHURAM, our Senior Correspondent in Mangalore, on a people's movement in Kasargod district to end the spraying of endosulfan.

THE people of Kasargod district are whipping up a strong people's movement against the aerial spray of endosulfan. Nearly six panchayats have decided to pass resolutions asking the Kerala Government to stop the aerial spraying of this deadly chemical on cashew plantations.

Mr. Chandrashekar Rao Kallega, President of the Bellur Panchayat told The Hindu, that as the first step the panchayats in the affected area are determined to end the endosulfan menace. By the end of this month, a delegation of panchayats would present a memorandum to the Agriculture Minister and also urge Members of Parliament and MLAs of the affected areas to see that further spraying was stopped and to send a fact finding team to the affected areas. People who visited this region found that, in the last eight years, the inhabitants had been afflicted by strange diseases. Mr. Kallega himself had once or twice voiced concern about the impending danger of such spraying. But at that time there was no awareness about the hazardous chemicals and so a strong protest was not launched.

The students of Kasargod Vivekananda College have conducted a survey of the ailments that afflict the 15 wards in the area beacuse of the endosulfan spray. The survey details, which are available with the respective panchayats, show a high degree of diseases affecting skin, lungs, brains, various types of cancers, breathing problems, vision impairment, psychological and behavioural changes and suicidal tendencies.

Mr. Ramachandra Ballal, who conducted the survey in the sixth ward, says things became bad in just a couple of years. Symptoms of these diseases, especially asthma, increased during the spray period thrice a year.

This ward (an area of three sq km) has recorded eight types of cancer, 18 cases of loss of vision, eight different types of skin diseases, eight cases of physical handicaps, four cases of mental retardation and diseases afflicting the central nervous system. Besides these, there have been unexplained deaths of cattle after they had a drink from local water sources.

According to entomologists at the University of Agricultural Sciences at Hebbal in Bangalore, even the Karnataka Cashew Development Corporation which has its headquarters at Mangalore suffers some degree of damage due to the tea mosquito menace but never has there been any incidence of spraying endosulfan on cashew trees spread out over 3000 acres in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts. The tea mosquitoe was a part of the entomological profile of the cashew growing areas and could never be eradicated or controlled by the endosulfan. However, excessive spray of this chemical can terminate various biological predators of the mosquitoes and thus ruin the entomological profile of the region over a 50 km radius.

This has been abundantly illustrated by the experience of beekeepers in the interior parts of Padre village in Yenmakaje panchayat limits. Apiculture, which was a lucrative vocation in these parts, is now being abandoned. The bees appear only for a short period between the two aerial sprays - in October and December - and vanish from the region for the next six months to reappear after the monsoons in September when the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) undertakes aerial spray again.

Studies made on endosulfan in other cashew growing areas like Africa and Latin America show that, in the long run, the hardy cashew trees also become vulnerable to the deadly chemical which destroys the water holding capacity of the trees and makes the trunk brittle.

Endosulfan belongs to the cyclodine category of chemicals, which is the fifth generation of pesticides belonging to the cyclodine group, including Dialdrine, Endrine, Carboral and Ecalux. By 1999, it had been banned in Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Bangladesh and Philippines, according to Ms. Usha, a researcher in Toxicology working with the Trivandrum based NGO, Thannal. She says at Padre village and other affected places in Kasargod district the PCK's mindless spraying has destroyed many natural predators of tea mosquitoes like Gurugunji tree ants and spiders normally found on the cashew trees. The spraying has deprived the cashew trees their last chance to ward off the tea mosquitoe with naturally available pest control, while at the same time causing a human tragedy.

Over 30 years, the PCK has been silent about the hazardous effects of endosulfan. It has turned a deaf ear to the advice of the expert committee of the University of Agriculture Science of Karnataka sent by the former Vice Chancellor Prof. S.Bisilaiah and the appeal of the people through media. The officials at the Karnataka Cashew Development Corporation in Mangalore on conditions of anonymity have termed the aerial spray of endosulfan as "unwarranted" and as an uneconomical proposition as the cost of spraying, the logistics, the dangers of endosulfan on the bio-diversity and the risks on human habitation was too great taking into account the area under consideration .

Mr. Walter D'Souza, member of the Cashew Export Promotion Council, says that the cashew consumers and importers are very particular about the way cashew is grown. They are at liberty to reject those import consignments of cashew grown with hazardous inputs to the crop either by the way of pesticides or by preservatives. The district authorities of Kasargod however, though apprehensive about the aerial spray, are not in a position to take any action as there has been no proper study of the situation.

The Mangalore Cashew Manufacturers' Association (MCMA) is in favour of suspending use of endosulfan. The pesticide residue is of key concern in importing countries. The government will have to take drastic steps to resolve this issue. Otherwise the entire industry will be jeopardised,which will have serious implications on exports.

But if there is a human angle attached to it, the issue becomes doubly sensitive. Mr. Prakash Rao, secretary of the MCMA, feels that human considerations prevail over all other issues and so the MCMA was in favour of immediately stopping use of endosulfan particularly in view of the National Research Centre for Cashew (NRCC) having withdrawn this chemical from the list of recommended pesticides.

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