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Kerala greens step up moves to get Grasim down shutters

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The decades-long campaign against pollution caused by the Birla-owned Grasim Industries Limited at Mavoor in the north Kerala district of Kozhikode has taken a new twist with the death of K A Rahman, who has been single-handedly fighting the Birla unit for 36 years.

Rahman, 57, died of cancer on December 10. The disease, he alleged before his death, was caused by the pollutants from Grasim.

Rahman is one of the 213 people who have died of cancer at Vazhakkad village which faces the brunt of the mercury and cadmium discharged into the Chaliyar river. Another 79 people are now battling for life.

The health profile of the village (population: 30,000) indicates that at least 60 people are found to have cardio-pulmonary afflictions, 176 have tuberculosis, 134 have chronic asthma, 134 have lethal ulcers and another 650 have kidney and vision troubles.

A 1981 study by medical college experts revealed that 23 per cent men and 21 per cent women in the village had respiratory ailments and 14 and seven per cent respectively had chronic bronchitis. The doctors considered this as very high compared to normal villages. The cancer-related death rate in Vazhakkad village was 30 per cent.

The death of Rahman, who had to sell his ancestral property to continue his fight against Grasim, has transformed the pollution campaign into one for the unit's closure. A convention held in the wake of Rahman's death at Kozhikode on Sunday said it was time to get the killer unit closed.

The convention attended by leading environmentalists, writers, artistes, lawyers, doctors and other professionals has vowed to launch a state-wide struggle for the closure of the unit that has 3,000 workers.

The convention felt there was no need to force the company to control pollution as it has failed to implement measures suggested by various agencies and the government and its agencies have failed to enforce it.

"We have been wasting a lot of years in mere talking and endless studies on the Grasim pollution issue. It is now time that we stopped talking and began acting,'' said poet and the Kerala Women's Commission chairperson Sugathakumari. She said she would organise all the writers in the state and bring them to the frontline for getting the unit closed permanently.

Former Kerala high court judge Justice Chandrashekhara Menon felt the issue involved a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to live. The present government has failed to implement the measures recommended by an experts committee it appointed. "Where else could there be a government as irresponsible as this?" he said.

It would be naive to depend on the government to uphold the rule of law and ensure a democratic victory, he added. Only a strong popular assertion could make the closure of the polluting unit a reality, he said.

In fact, the environmentalists do not expect any support from government and political parties since their overriding consideration is the interest of the workers. They would not support any move that would render 3,000 workers jobless.

But do they have any concern about thousands of unorganised fishermen and farmers who have lost their livelihood due to the impact of toxic emissions into rivers and earth, ask the environmentalists.

Studies have pointed out that the aquatic wealth in the Chaliyar river has considerably depleted due to discharge of effluents from the unit into the river. A 1994 study conducted by the National Institute of Oceanography revealed that the density of organisms in the Chaliyar river ranged from a minimum of 63 per square metre to a maximum of 1,600 per square metre during pre-monsoon periods, while it was 1105 and 17,967 respectively in the Korapuzha river, which is not polluted as the Chaliyar.

Similarly, the lush green farm lands in the areas surrounding the factory have turned barren. One study points out that the sulphur dioxide discharged by the unit has been rendering hundreds of hectares of land barren.

Dr K T Vijayamadhavan, who studied the effect of the toxic materials on agriculture, said it destroyed the chlorophyll content of the plants, leading to wilting and withering of leaves. The Grasim management has been maintaining that its effluents were good for irrigation.

Unfortunately, there has been no one to talk about this unorganised category. Rahman, who was president of the Vazhakkad panchayat for several years, had voiced concern about this unorganised section.

In fact, the proposed struggle for the closure of the Grasim unit has drawn inspiration from the last talk he had with a Tamil Nadu Green movement leader Jayachandran, who had forced the closure of a unit similar to Grasim Industries. Jayachandran, who happened to read a public statement issued by Rahman from his hospital bed, had visited him a day before his death. The talk between the two was recorded.

Rahman told Jayachandran: "All the talk about treatment to reduce pollution are lies. No pollution abatement takes place at Grasim Industries. I know, all are lying. The government, trade union leaders and the management are telling lies to fool my villagers. And my people, my villagers, are dying like me. Can Birla make a river? All I wish to see is my river come back to life just once, see the fish leap in the sun, and see that my people don't have to die any more like me."

The Kozhikode convention has formed a state-level agitation council to spearhead the agitation. The Chaliyar Agitation Council would be starting an indefinite fast before the Grasim unit from January 26 as part of the statewide struggle. The council has plans to organise mass agitation, boycott of Grasim products, removal of their advertisements and other measures for getting the unit wind up.

The Grasim management has been maintaining that they have been implementing all the measures suggested for checking the pollution. A management spokesman said the media and the environmentalists have been concocting stories against them due to vested interests.

The struggle might bring the workers and the environmentalists to a confrontation. However, people like famous architect Laurie Baker said the closure of the unit would not affect them. He said it was practically possible to convert the factory into an equally work-giving unit that does not produce toxic wastes and needs no toxic material in its manufacture.

Two products he cited were silk and cotton. He said the rayon, for the production of which toxic substances were required, was hardly conducive to Indian conditions. "Why should we produce them and kill many?" he asked.

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