Cost of destroying endosulfan puts government in a quandary

The Supreme Court's notice to the central government asking to come out with measures to dispose the banned pesticide endosulfan by June 23 has put state government in a quandary.

Kerala has been struggling to destroy around 1,500 litres endosulfan that is being currently stored in different godowns owned by Kasaragod Plantation Corporation following an order by the Supreme Court to ban the toxic pesticide.

Last year, the court, acting on a writ petition filed by the Democratic Youth Federation of India, had banned the production and sale of endosulfan in the country. It had directed the state and central government to freeze the production licences granted to manufacturers of endosulfan till further orders.

The court, but allowed the export of endosulfan to enable the manufacturers to meet their contractual obligations, even as it made it clear that the ban on production of the pesticide would continue.

The manufacturers of endosulfan claimed around 8,000 tonnes endosulfan stock is yet to be commercially used and is being stored in different godowns across the country. They said while the cost of manufacturing one kilo of endosulfan is Rs 300, but to destroy the same quantity it would cost around Rs 4,000.

Endosulfan was banned in Kerala seven years ago, after the central government issued a gazette notification withholding the use of endosulfan in the state, on the basis of reports of the National Institute of Occupational Health. It is estimated endosulfan was sprayed in 10,000 hectares of cashew crop in Kerala prior to the ban.

The Stockholm Convention, a global treaty to protect health and environment has also declared endosulfan as a persistent pollutant .

Last year, India joined the list of 73 countries that have banned the use of this pesticide (AgroNews 2011-04-29).

Environmentalists point out that further studies need to be done to confirm whether large scale congenital deformities in Kasaragod district was due to excessive and unscientific use of endosulfan.

"We need to destroy the available stock of endosulfan using non-combustible technology that will not pollute the environment. The higher cost for using such technology should not be seen as a hindrance as there is a larger social and environmental cost involved here,'' said C Jayakumar, trustee of Thanal, an environmental NGO which studied the endosulfan issue.