It has been more than a dozen years since health professionals in north Kerala started noticing unusual health disorders in the tracts where there had been aerial spraying of the pesticide endosulfan on cashew plantations. Surveys, studies and countless media reports have brought out the burden of endosulfan. The Government of Kerala has even banned the sale of the pesticide. But the use of endosulfan continues elsewhere in the country, and India which has become a major exporter of this pesticide, remains adamant in its opposition to a global ban.
