Mohanlal has joined the campaigners against the pesticide that unleashed death in Kasaragod and other parts of the state.
Writing in his blog he also blamed rival political parties absolving those who authorised aerial spraying of the killer pesticide poisoning theatre bodies and subjecting hundreds to slow and painful death.
“We have read about the dropping of atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and its devastating effects on the lives of generations to come. But how many of us are aware of the poison bombs dropped from helicopters on the unsuspecting people,” he wrote.
Some 2,836 victims were officially identified in 11 villages in Kasaragod with fatal ills and genetic deformities and many of them are bedridden and on the throes of death.
“I don’t know what to do about this. Their lives and dreams are scorched and they need money to get good treatment, they need support, they need empathy and relief for those families who are absolutely in the dark about how to pull along,” he concluded.
The state-owned Kerala Plantation Corporation is blamed for spraying the pesticide over its cashew plantations using helicopters in the northern district of Kasaragod for several years a decade ago.
Though its use was banned in Kerala six years back farmers reportedly continued to use it in a limited scale. Some 500 deaths from 1995 are blamed on the deadly pesticide sprayed in the region.
The pesticide drains and gets washed down the slopes from the hilly plantations during rains into drinking water below.
By Ashraf Padanna (Gulf Today)