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More shocking reports are coming in regarding the ill effects of endosulfan
spraying on cashew plantation in Kerala villages. If the available
information is any indication, a minimum of a dozen Kasaragod villages will
have thousands of poor villagers of all age groups suffering from various
incurable ailments - without knowing its cause!
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Bovikkana is in Muliyar Panchayath (Kasaragod Taluk and same district). A
local sports and Arts Club, Punchiri has conducted a survey of 40 houses in
the village. There are about 156 persons living in these houses. Out of
these 39 were found to be seriously ill.
| Disorder | # of cases |
| Swelling in Chest | 2 |
| Mentally Retarded | 8 |
| Persons with Mental Retardation & Born handicapped | 6 |
| Psoriasis | 2 |
| Psychiatry | 3 |
| Gynaec problems | 6 |
| Goiter | 1 |
| Problem in Oral region | 1 |
| Sterility | 5 |
| Hydrocephalus | 1 |
| Born Handicapped | 4 |
| Total | 39 |
Mr. K.B. Mohammad, Club President, says, "There will be hundreds of such
cases in and around Bovikkana. But you need to conduct an in-depth,
house-to-house survey to bring this to light. Ours was a pilot survey. We
selected only some areas that is very close to the cashew plantations." In
fact in some of these areas, cashew tree population is extremely less (there
are more houses than cashew trees), and the human dwellings are so close to
the plantation. Such areas should have been no-spray zones. There are 8
schools in the vicinity of Plantation Corporation of Kerala's cashew
plantation. No survey has been done here. The State Government’s health
department has to conduct a medical survey by multi-disciplinary team
immediately.
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Rajapuram is in Hosdurg Taluk of Kasaragod District. PCK has 248 hectares
of cashew plantation in the village. Here, in the houses very close to
plantations (25 to 200 metres), in the last three years, 10 persons have
died of cancer. Age group of the dead is 18 to 78. Soyal, who was a student
at the seminary, Kottayam is the youngest (18) to die on 14th May 1999. A
PCK labourer, Annamma (39), wife of Jose Karuplakal, who had been working
with PCK since two decades, breathed her last on July 7, 1999, due to
Cancer. Chedikund John (50) and his elder brother Maththayi (60) are among
the other cancer victims of this area. This may only be a tip of the
iceberg. Reports are coming forward from villages like Nettanige, Karadka
etc., about different kinds of diseases. If the available information is any
indication, a minimum of a dozen Kasaragod villages will have thousands of
poor villagers of all age groups suffering from various incurable ailments -
without knowing its cause and being helpless about it!
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- A CAAM report
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