Anxieties over possibility of the offspring bearing congenital disorders due to Endosulfan poisoning are reportedly forcing women of Kasaragod in Kerala
The world will be watching India as the conference of parties to the Stockholm Convention meet in Geneva from April 25 to 29 to discuss, among other things, a global ban on the pesticide endosulfan.
India was the only member country to take a stand against the ban at the Sixth Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Convention that recommended the ban last year.
KASARAGOD: Narayana Naik, 70, whose name was on the official list of victims of Endosulfan sprayed on cashew estates in 11 panchayat limits in the district, died of liver complications in his house at Bedirampalla, near Perla, on Monday, official sources here said. He had been undergoing prolonged treatment for a mysterious disease.
Evidence is mounting on the ill-effects of Endosulfan sprayed on cashew plantations in Kasaragod district, even as the Union government continues to be ambivalent on the issue.
A survey done by the Health Department has identified nearly 4,000 victims after screening 16,000.
The “Endosulfan poisoning “ at Kasargod was first reported in the media in 1979 by Sri. Shreepadre farm journalist from the village Padre. The Plantation Corporation of Kerala started areal spraying of endosulfan in its cashew plantations in Kasargod district in 1976.
It has been more than a dozen years since health professionals in north Kerala started noticing unusual health disorders in the tracts where there had been aerial spraying of the pesticide endosulfan on cashew plantations. Surveys, studies and countless media reports have brought out the burden of endosulfan. The Government of Kerala has even banned the sale of the pesticide.
As the demand for a ban on endosulfan in India is gaining pitch, the pesticide associations are leaving no opportunity to vilify CSE for saving their US $ 100m market. CSE responds with the facts and a detailed chronology of events.
Farmers at large have found endosulfan does not harm pollinators.
THE HINDU Farmers at large have found endosulfan does not harm pollinators.
February 9, 2011:
Strange is the interplay of money power, business interests and NGO politics. In most cases, farmers turn out to be victims. A recent notification of the Kerala government is a good instance.
The city-based NGO Thanal has dismissed allegations raised by the Pesticide Manufacturers and Formulators Association of India (PMFAI) that Thanal had been receiving funds from European Union to run media campaign against endosulphan as absolutely baseless.
''This is just part of an orchestrated move to create media hype before the Conference of Parties is held in Geneva before February end.
