VS and endosulfan: The politician who turned a local cry into a state cause

Kasaragod: In the long, agonising fight for justice in the endosulfan-affected villages of Kasaragod, VS Achuthanandan was the first major political leader to take up the cause -- and he laid the foundation for the victims’ legal rights and recognition.

Long before the tragedy found a place in official records, Achuthanandan was there in the dusty lanes of Enmakaje, in protest tents, and in Assembly debates -- listening to grieving mothers, embracing children with deformities, and ensuring that the state did not look away.

The first to listen
It was October 18, 1998, when Leela Kumari Amma, an agriculture officer from Pullur, filed a case in Hosdurg Munsif Court seeking a halt to aerial spraying of endosulfan by the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK). The lower court granted an interim ban in 1999. But the Corporation, which had been spraying the pesticide from helicopters over its cashew estates since 1978, appealed -- but the Hosdurg Subordinate Court and the High Court upheld the interim order in 2000.

Meanwhile, national attention flickered when The Hindu published an article about cows giving birth to calves with deformities in Padre village, said writer, teacher, activist and documentary filmmaker MA Rahman. "The NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) took suo motu cognisance and ordered a study by the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH)," he said.

NIOH's study, led by Dr Habibullah Saiyed, confirmed what people in Kasaragod already suspected: endosulfan was poisoning their land, bodies, and futures. "But the Congress-led Union government kept the report under wraps," Rahman said.

In 2002, as Leader of the Opposition, Achuthanandan joined the Endosulfan Virudha Samithi's march to the Kasaragod Collectorate. It wasn’t just another protest -- it was the first major public mobilisation against the aerial spraying, with over 1,000 students marching alongside grieving families, said activist Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan. "VS's presence in the protest took the issue from the villages of Kasaragod to the state capital," he said.

After inaugurating the protest march to the collectorate, Achuthanandan visited Vaninagar in Enmakaje panchayat — the epicentre of the tragedy. He spoke to Dr YS Mohan Kumar, who had documented unusually high rates of congenital deformities and cancers, and to farmer-journalist Shree Padre, who kept the issue alive in the press.

Later, as Chief Minister (2006-2011), he moved from protest to policy. When first-time MLA CH Kunhambu asked in the Assembly how many deaths were linked to endosulfan, Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Retnakaran said, none.

"The denial sparked outrage," said Prof Rahman, the chronicler of the tragedy. He unearthed Revenue Department records listing 52 documented deaths, and wrote a scathing article in Mathrubhumi. "VS, don’t you remember the siblings of Bovikanam?" the headline asked, invoking two victims Achuthanandan had posed with during his time as Leader of the Opposition. [To be sure, his collection of 63 essays on endosulfan victims, compiled as Oaro Jeevanum Vilappettathaanu (Every Life is Precious), won the prestigious Odakkuzhal Award in 2017.]

The Chief Minister did not take offence at the article but took it as a challenge, said Prof Rahman. "He directed the Kasaragod District Panchayat, then led by MV Balakrishnan, to compile a list of the deceased within two days."

He also said in the Assembly that he would bring the Agriculture Minister to Kasaragod and make him apologise to the people, said Rahman.

Once the list was read, Achuthanandnan came to Kasargod and personally handed out cheques of ₹50,000 to relatives of 144 persons who died of ailments suspected to be triggered by endosulfan aerial spraying. "I was in the crowd," Rahman recalled. "He stepped down from the stage and gave the cheques one by one to the families. It was the first time the government acknowledged that people had died due to endosulfan. And it was the first time the government gave solatium to the victims of the aerial spraying."

From Solatium to Symbolism
Achuthanandan also initiated a ₹400 monthly pension scheme for the affected families. Critics called it meagre. But for Rahman, it had meaning. "It was a start. Also, it was a recognition that the effects of endosulfan were real," he said.

More importantly, it laid the legal foundation for solatium and compensation as a right. On December 31, 2010, the NHRC recommended that the state government disburse ₹5 lakh to relatives of every deceased or bedridden victim.

That same year, the first official medical camps were held in 11 panchayats to identify endosulfan victims. These camps, held between December 16, 2010, and January 9, 2011, helped frame clear guidelines for identifying affected individuals, moving the tragedy from emotional appeal to administrative action, said Rahman.

In 2011, during the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, Achuthanandan led a statewide Anti-Endosulfan Day and observed a seven-hour fast. "Strangely, people in every state must suffer before a national ban," he said, skewering the Centre’s hesitancy.

Hunger, Hope, and the Final Fight
Even after leaving office, Achuthanandan remained the cause’s moral anchor. In January 2016, during the UDF regime, he inaugurated a hunger strike in front of the Secretariat demanding implementation of NHRC recommendations. Over 80 children and mothers participated. "When the government did not agree to talks, VS returned the next day and phoned Oommen Chandy and told him he would join the hunger strike if the government didn’t act," Kunhikrishnan said. The government caved.

His commitment never wavered. In 2017, even as Chairman of the Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission, he continued to speak out. In 'Arikujeevithangal', a poignant 24-minute documentary by Chandru Vellarikkund, Achuthanandan appears with gravity and grace. "From time to time, governments make announcements or packages, and then forget them halfway," he says in the film. "That’s why their cries never stop."

When Chandru -- a small-town filmmaker with little influence -- approached Achuthanandan to release the film, he expected a polite deferral. Instead, VS postponed a prior engagement. "He sat through the whole screening," Chandru recalled. "I will never forget that. He gave the cause importance."

Achuthanandan's lasting impact is the foundation for compensation. "He initiated solatium. Now our next big legal fight is for compensation for the victims," he said.