By K A Shaji
10 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The Kanjikode industrial park in Kerala is in the news for good as well as bad reasons. The 300-acre park is the second largest of its kind in the state and the state government has recently submitted a proposal to the defence ministry to establish a defence production unit there.
But the grime side of the story is that industrial pollution in the region has assumed alarming proportion. According to the tribals and the Dalits who reside in the region, Kanjikode is a hell. As many as 42 iron-smelting factories along with the soft drink giant Pepsi's bottling unit are violating the pollution control measures and industrial safety norms. Almost all the residents near the park are suffering from bronchitis, asthma, cancer and kidney diseases ever since the establishment of these units.Eight-year-old Samadhana Prabhu goes to the local government hospital every week since he is suffering from severe respiratory ailments. The doctors have advised the poor Dalit family to shift their home outside the highly polluted Vivekanada Colony in Kanjikode. But they have no place to go:
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