ENDOSULFAN

Endosulfan is an organochlorine compound that is used as an insecticide . This insecticide has emerged as a highly controversial agrichemical due to its acute toxicity, potential for accumulation, and role as an endocrine disruptor. Banned in more than 63 countries, including the European Union, Australia and New Zealand, and other Asian and West African nations, and soon in the United States, it is still used extensively in many other countries including India and Brazil. It is produced by Government-of-India–owned Hindustan Insecticides Limited in india. Because of its threats to the environment, a global ban on the use and manufacture of endosulfan  is the latest cry for environmentalist .

India the world's largest user of endosulfan and a major producer .India is the major source of income for these insecticide manufacturing companies.In 2001, in Kerala, India, endosulfan spraying became noticed when cases  of abnormalities noted in local school  children. Initially endosulfan was banned, yet under pressure from the pesticide industry this ban was largely revoked. The situation there has been called "next in magnitude only to the Bhopal gas tragedy." 

Many Social activists and organisations have been active in providing rehabilitation for the victims of poisoning. They are demanding the banning of Endosulphan in India .

.For 26 long years, the government-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala aerially sprayed endosulfan in an area of nearly 4,700 acres in Kasaragod. Endosulfan is a deadly pesticide banned in many parts of the world. The United States Environmental Protection Agency classifies Endosulphan as a highly hazardous pesticide. But in Kerala it was sprayed for years in government-owned plantations. Today, villagers who lived close to the plantation are paying the price, despite an indefinite ban on the substance. Many of them got paralyzed or are seriously ill. 

Swarga and other areas like Padre, Muliyar and Bellur in Kasaragod district of Kerala have become living examples of how the poison in pesticides could be lethal when used excessively and carelessly. The area is dotted with tragedy struck families battling physical deformities, cancers and disorders of the central nervous system.As the plantations are in a mountainous area, the pesticide residues settled on the soil and got washed away when it rained into drinking water streams below. It is mandatory to cover all water sources like wells, tanks and other water bodies during the spraying of such a toxic pesticide. But this was not done.The study showed children had congenital abnormalities. Male children suffered from delayed sexual maturity while female children matured early. Another study by the Kerala’s health department also found cases of congenital abnormalities, mental retardation, cancer and infertility in areas where the aerial spraying was done. Endosulfan was also found in the blood samples of children.

                         abnormalities in an endosulfan victim

1. 
   

                                   -Deformed hands, knees and feet

1. 
   

                                        - Six year-old cancer patient 

                                        - Finger deformities 

                                        - Skin diseas

Mohammed Kunhi remembers how he and his classmates used to run out of their classrooms when they heard the sound of the helicopter that was spraying endosulfan. The spray would settle on their hair and shine in the sun and they would all laugh. “I hate to think of it now. We used to go and welcome the helicopter pilots and treat them like heroes. We were actually inviting death and disease,” he says with a hatred.

we should stop this menace otherwise  it will  wipe  away a new generation..

so lets  say ,

" BAN ENDOSULFAN"

.

reffer:http://www.indiatogether.org/2004/jan/env-endosulf.htm