The Hindu Business Line : Dubey panel's clean chit to endosulfan challenged

MS Sunita Narain, Editor of Down to Earth magazine and Director of the Centre for Science and Environment, has said that the Union Government showed "undue haste" in accepting the O.P. Dubey Committee's report that gave a clean chit to endosulfan.

The Dubey Committee was formed to study the link between the health problems found in Padre village in Kasargod district and the use of endosulfan in nearby cashew plantations of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala. An investigation by the magazine has found that there was dissent within the committee, with some members opposed to its findings, she added.

The eight-member committee headed by Dr O.P. Dubey was set up in 2003 to ascertain whether endosulfan was responsible for the widespread health problems in Padre village.

Ms Narain claimed that an investigation by her magazine had found that the scientific study used by the Dubey Committee to support its conclusions was "doctored". The study, carried out by a private laboratory based in Tamil Nadu had reported that there was no endosulfan residue in human blood samples taken from Padre village and that there was only a negligible amount of the pesticide in the environment. The study also concluded that there were no remains of alpha and beta endosulfan in the samples collected from Padre.

However, Down to Earth is in possession of documents that indicate that the private laboratory that carried out these tests had found alpha and beta endosulfan residue in human blood samples, and had also underreported the levels of endosulfan residue found in the environment, Ms Narain said. The Dubey Committee, however, chose to accept this scientific study, while rejecting the results of an earlier report prepared by the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH).

The NIOH report, prepared at the behest of the National Human Rights Commission, had registered the presence of both alpha and beta endosulfan in soil, water and human blood samples collected from the region. This report also found that blood samples from Padre contained higher levels of endosulfan when compared to blood samples taken in the `control village' of Meenja.

In thelight of these findings, the report of the Dubey Committee and the decision of the Union Government to accept it must be challenged, Ms Narain contented.

Water rights: The `Plachimada issue' has drawn attention to groundwater depletion, said Ms Narain. This issue has driven home the point that the Government alone cannot take decisions on the use of groundwater.

The people living in an area have the right to be involved in decisions on the use of groundwater, and Plachimada has emphasised this aspect, she added.

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