Endosulphan is one of the hundreds of pesticides used by farmers everywhere.Pesticides are basically sort of poison to kill weeds and pests sprayed regularly to crops of all nature.
Cardamom which is one among high profit yielding cash crops of high ranges of Kerala require heavy dosage of pesticides to grow as it is highly susceptible to pests and weeds.
I had a client at Nedumgandom for whom I designed and built a house near his cardamom plantations.At least once in a fortnight I used to visit the site during construction travelling by car from Cochin returning on same day.I could enjoy beauty of high ranges of Kerala moving through hair pin turns one after another.
Once when my client at Nedumgandom came to my office at Cochin for a visit,we gave him tea with cardamom in it.After taking a sip,he rushed to wash basin and spit out entire sip of tea.He was real angry.
“Why are you giving this poison for me to drink? If you do not know I know the amount of poison being sprayed to cardamom from beginning to end”
Similarly when I was doing a project at Kothanalloor where lot of pineapple are being cultivated,when I was about to buy pineapple my local client told me not to eat it.
”It is really dangerous.Amount of poison going in to it is too much.We will only sell it.We will never eat it”
All pesticides including endosulphan are dangerous.But without using these pesticides you cannot get crops in good quantity.If not endosulphan some other pesticide of equal poisonous content has to be used and will be used.
As Kerala has banned endosulphan ,farmers in high ranges and other places go to Tamil Nadu to buy it.They say no other pesticide is as effective as endosulphan especially for cardamom.
Trouble in the case of Kasargode has come because large scale planters there has sprayed endosulphan continuously all over the area where cashew crops are planted.People have used water mixed with endosulphan for drinking.So all problems have happened.Will any one ban poison simply because drinking it will cause death?Nobody is making any hue and cry about taking that company spraying endosulphan by air in Kasargode area to task.They might have managed these politicians well.
Endosulphan is a pesticide manufactured in a government company called Hindustan Insecticides Limited at Eloor,Cochin.No one working in the company handling endosulphan during production has reported any adverse effect during these years.So it is not the product but the way it is used is the problem creator.Nobody is bothered to enquire about it.Public sector HIL cannot do lobbying spending lots of money for the product.If the product was manufactured by private sector companies like Ambanis no body would have fought against the product.They would have managed it well.
Politicians and film stars want political and publicity mileage out of endosulphan.They are getting it enough.Incidentally I asked a politician friend why he is against endosulphan.He replied:”Every one opposes.So I also oppose it.If I support it I will be treated as a bad guy”
Unless a better and less poisonous product is developed instead of endosulphan,farmers will find ways to get the product for use.For them their rich cash crops are important.
Cardamom which is one among high profit yielding cash crops of high ranges of Kerala require heavy dosage of pesticides to grow as it is highly susceptible to pests and weeds.
I had a client at Nedumgandom for whom I designed and built a house near his cardamom plantations.At least once in a fortnight I used to visit the site during construction travelling by car from Cochin returning on same day.I could enjoy beauty of high ranges of Kerala moving through hair pin turns one after another.
Once when my client at Nedumgandom came to my office at Cochin for a visit,we gave him tea with cardamom in it.After taking a sip,he rushed to wash basin and spit out entire sip of tea.He was real angry.
“Why are you giving this poison for me to drink? If you do not know I know the amount of poison being sprayed to cardamom from beginning to end”
Similarly when I was doing a project at Kothanalloor where lot of pineapple are being cultivated,when I was about to buy pineapple my local client told me not to eat it.
”It is really dangerous.Amount of poison going in to it is too much.We will only sell it.We will never eat it”
All pesticides including endosulphan are dangerous.But without using these pesticides you cannot get crops in good quantity.If not endosulphan some other pesticide of equal poisonous content has to be used and will be used.
As Kerala has banned endosulphan ,farmers in high ranges and other places go to Tamil Nadu to buy it.They say no other pesticide is as effective as endosulphan especially for cardamom.
Trouble in the case of Kasargode has come because large scale planters there has sprayed endosulphan continuously all over the area where cashew crops are planted.People have used water mixed with endosulphan for drinking.So all problems have happened.Will any one ban poison simply because drinking it will cause death?Nobody is making any hue and cry about taking that company spraying endosulphan by air in Kasargode area to task.They might have managed these politicians well.
Endosulphan is a pesticide manufactured in a government company called Hindustan Insecticides Limited at Eloor,Cochin.No one working in the company handling endosulphan during production has reported any adverse effect during these years.So it is not the product but the way it is used is the problem creator.Nobody is bothered to enquire about it.Public sector HIL cannot do lobbying spending lots of money for the product.If the product was manufactured by private sector companies like Ambanis no body would have fought against the product.They would have managed it well.
Politicians and film stars want political and publicity mileage out of endosulphan.They are getting it enough.Incidentally I asked a politician friend why he is against endosulphan.He replied:”Every one opposes.So I also oppose it.If I support it I will be treated as a bad guy”
Unless a better and less poisonous product is developed instead of endosulphan,farmers will find ways to get the product for use.For them their rich cash crops are important.
No comments:
Post a Comment