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Between 1978 and 2001, the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) aerially sprayed approximately 57,560 litres of toxic Endosulfan across its plantations, contaminating air and drinking water and causing widespread mortality and chronic illness. Endosulfan was banned worldwide only in 2011, leaving PCK with a stockpile of the toxic pesticide, which was subsequently dumped illegally, unscrupulously, and unethically along the Karnataka–Kerala border in the Western Ghats. This article examines the fate of that stockpile and the activist-filed case before the National Green Tribunal.
In June 2013, Achuta Maniyani, a security guard employed by the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK), revealed that he had dumped unused stockpiles of Endosulfan barrels into open wells in the Minchinapadavu Hillocks. He was acting on instructions from PCK officials. The hillocks are in the Kerala–Karnataka border, near Nettanige–Mudnur gram panchayat in Puttur Taluk of Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district.
About Endosulfan
Endosulfan is a highly toxic organochlorine insecticide originally developed by Bayer (Germany). It was mass-produced by Makhteshim Agan of Israel—later rebranded as ADAMA Agricultural Solutions— and in India by Hindustan Insecticides Limited (HIL), a Government of India enterprise under the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers.
Classified as a Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP), endosulfan bioaccumulates in soil and groundwater, persisting for years. Long-term exposure—particularly through contaminated drinking water—has been linked to cerebral palsy, autism, reproductive disorders, congenital abnormalities, endocrine disruption, and developmental delays.
The U.S. EPA banned endosulfan in 2010. The Supreme Court of India banned it in 2011, the same year it was added to the Stockholm Convention as a banned POP.
Under the Stockholm Convention, India was required to identify and safely dispose of obsolete endosulfan stock through high-temperature incineration—obligations that were minimally fulfilled, if at all.
The Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK), a state-owned public sector enterprise, initiated aerial spraying of Endosulfan across its cashew estates, in the late 1970s, in Kasaragod district of Kerala and later in the adjoining districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Uttara Kannada in Karnataka.
Within a decade of spraying—the first visible signs appeared as deformities in cattle grazing beneath the flight paths. By the 1990s, the widespread human toll became prominently visible in villages exposed to aerial Endosulfan spraying.
Children were born with severe physical abnormalities; survivors developed debilitating neurological conditions including epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and progressive memory loss.
Across affected communities, clusters of cancer, asthma, and severe mental-health disorders emerged, touching nearly every household.
Chronic illness became the norm.
Faced with mounting scientific evidence and massive public resistance from affected communities, PCK finally stopped aerial spraying of Endosulfan in 2001. Citizen action through the courts soon followed. In response to sustained public-interest litigation, the Kerala High Court imposed a ban on Endosulfan within the state in 2002. In 2011, the Supreme Court—acting on citizen petitions—banned Endosulfan sale & use nationwide.
But the ban did not end the danger. After the nationwide prohibition, large quantities of Endosulfan stocks remained with both PCK and the manufacturers. The Supreme Court permitted manufacturers to export their remaining stocks to other countries. Meanwhile, PCK’s stock lay stored in estate godowns for several years and was later illegally, irresponsibly & unethically dumped into open wells, as revealed by a PCK security guard.
Having seen the video recording of the PCK security guards confession, Dr Ravindranath Shanbhag of the Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF) visited the Endosulfan dumpsite in 2013.
Since then, he has repeatedly urged authorities to trace the missing barrels and ensure their safe disposal.
Who is Dr. Ravindranath Shanbhag?
Dr. Ravindranath Shanbhag, founder of the Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF), Udupi, has been one of the earliest and most persistent voices demanding justice for endosulfan victims.
HRPF’s work on endosulfan began in the 1990s and continues to this day.
The organisation played a central role in securing the endosulfan ban in Kerala, followed by a nationwide ban through the Supreme Court.
HRPF also won compensation orders in the Karnataka High Court, ensuring disability assessments and monthly pensions of ₹2,000 and ₹4,000 for victims with over 25% and 60% disability respectively.
After years of government inaction, Dr. Shanbhag filed OA 186/2023 (SZ) before the NGT, seeking the safe recovery of illegally dumped endosulfan from the open wells of the Minchinapadavu Hillocks in Kerala.
HRPF’s work on endosulfan has been extensively documented on their website: https://udupihrpf.org/endosulphan-tragedy .
Dr. Shanbhag identified 130 victims in Nettanige–Mudnur, Padvannur, and Badagannur villages of Puttur Taluk—areas where no aerial spraying had taken place—clearly pointing to groundwater contamination of drinking water sources caused by the dumping. Despite this documented evidence, Governments of Karnataka and Kerala, as well as the Union Government, failed to act.
Note: Our hydrological analysis indicates that toxic Endosulfan from the Minchinapadavu dumping site, as well as other as-yet-unidentified dumping locations in the area, may have migrated into the Payaswini and Shiriya river through subsurface flows and eventually joined the Arabian Sea.
Finally, in 2023, Dr. Ravindranath Shanbhag filed OA 186 of 2023 before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Southern Zone, seeking urgent directions to the State of Kerala for the safe and scientific extraction of Endosulfan Barrels dumped into wells at the Minchinapadavu hillocks and other locations.
Pursuant to the NGT’s directions, the CPCB conducted a spot inspection of PCK estates on 28 Dec 2023
CPCB submitted its spot inspection report to the NGT in January 2024. Key findings include:
Key Findings of CPCB Spot Inspection Report (dated Jan 2024)
Kerala: Missing Records & Clandestine Dumping
57.56 KL of endosulfan consumed (1983–2001), expected to produce 278 used barrels.
PCK could show only 20 empty barrels; the rest remain untraced.
Unused stock in Estates: 700 L (Kasaragod), 450 L (Rajapuram), 10 kg solid (Cheemeni), 304 L (Mannarghat).
PCK provided no disposal records for missing barrels.
Residents reported dumping into a 70-ft open wells; CPCB found 5/32 wells sealed — dumping “cannot be ignored”.
Kerala reports ~6,600 victims in Kasaragod.
Karnataka: No Records, No Answers
Endosulfan used in Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, and Udupi.
The Health & Family Welfare Department provided no details on disposal of empty barrels or remaining stockpiles.
4,728 victims in Dakshina Kannada, including 364 deaths.
Officials withheld data for Udupi and Uttara Kannada “despite having the records”.
Subsequently, the CPCB filed its analysis reports for the samples collected during the spot inspection. The results came back as “Below Detection Limit” (BDL), appearing to show no contamination. However, in a sworn affidavit, the CPCB admitted a critical failure: their instruments were simply not sensitive enough to detect toxicity at levels that are legally considered unsafe.
CPCB stated: “Analysis of all future sample is required to be performed using the instruments/methods having lower detection limits of Endosulfan in water (0.4µg/L)… so as to conclusively ascertain the presence of Endosulfan if any.”
The Flaw in Detection
📉 The Bengaluru Lab’s Limit: The CPCB laboratory could detect endosulfan only if levels exceeded 0.01 mg/L (10 µg/L).
🛑 The Safety Standard: The permissible limit for endosulfan in drinking water is 0.4 µg/L.
⚠️ The Blind Spot: This means the lab could detect contamination only when it was 25 times higher than the safety threshold.
🚨 The Consequence: Any contamination between 0.4 µg/L (unsafe) and 10 µg/L (detectable) would be missed entirely—effectively declaring toxic water “safe” due to equipment incapacity.
Now, the Kerala Pollution Control Board (PCB) submitted to the Tribunal that they had been testing Endosulfan for the past 10 years and had ‘not found any.’
If the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)—the premier environmental agency in the country—admitted that its regional laboratory in Bengaluru lacked the sensitive, high-end equipment needed to detect toxicity at legally unsafe levels (0.4 µg/L), is it plausible that the Kerala State Board has been sitting on superior, ultra-sensitive technology for a decade? Or have they, too, been using inadequate instruments to churn out ‘clean’ reports for ten years?”
Kerala PCB reports are not publicly available for independent verification.
While the critical analysis with sensitive instruments remains pending, the CPCB reportedly traced additional barrels, bringing the total recovered to 69 out of the estimated 278 used barrels (which are empty). The Board recommended incineration of recovered items.
However, unsatisfied with the piecemeal recovery and the inconclusive, insensitive testing reports, the National Green Tribunal (Southern Zone) issued a decisive order on 29 October 2025. It directed M/s. Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) to conduct a thorough, joint examination of all previous findings—including reports from the Kerala State Government, Kerala PCB, and CPCB—alongside the objections raised by the applicant and submit a comprehensive report. Most importantly, the Tribunal ordered that PCK bear all costs including that of clean-up.
Tribunal’s Directions to PCK
📦 The Missing Barrels: Account for the fate of all 278 original endosulfan barrels, clarifying exactly how many remain untraced beyond the 69 already recovered.
🌊 Environmental Damage: Document soil and water contamination caused by endosulfan— implicitly requiring the use of high-sensitivity equipment capable of detecting toxicity at legal safety thresholds.
🧹 Remedial Action: Propose and implement remedial measures to clean up existing contamination and prevent further leaching into surrounding ecosystems and aquifers.
💰 Cost of Clean-up: All costs for this investigation and subsequent remediation shall be borne entirely by PCK.
The official apathy, and inaction displayed in this case by governments and PCK — are neither new nor accidental. The Bhopal gas tragedy offers a stark precedent. For over four decades, Union Carbide’s toxic waste remained within the factory premises, continuously contaminating groundwater and sickening successive generations. The affected community fought relentlessly for its removal for nearly forty years. It took sustained citizen pressure and judicial intervention before the toxic waste was finally incinerated this year.
A similar pattern is evident in the conduct of Hindustan Insecticides Limited (HIL)—a Government of India enterprise under the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers—which manufactured Endosulfan, DDT, and Dicofol (Insecticide derived from DDT).
For years, HIL stored Endosulfan-laden solid waste in unlined lagoons within its Eloor factory premises, barely 300–500 metres from the Periyar River, allowing toxic leachate to percolate unchecked into the ecosystem.
☠️ Hindustan Insecticides Limited (HIL): Gross Negligence in Handling Hazardous Endosulfan Waste
HIL began producing endosulfan at its Kochi plant in Kerala in 1980, manufacturing approximately 1,600 tonnes.
By 1999 and 2002, Greenpeace investigations had already documented severe contamination of the Periyar River with endosulfan discharged from the HIL factory via Kuzhikandam Thodu and Unthi Thodu.
In 2002, the Government of Kerala banned the use of endosulfan within the state—yet HIL continued manufacturing and exporting the pesticide to other states.
The Kerala Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has recorded that HIL had been dumping chemical residues inside its factory premises since 2006.
In 2010, KSPCB inspections discovered pesticide-laden sludge containing endosulfan and DDT dumped into unlined lagoons within the Kochi factory compound.
In 2011, finding the toxic sludge still unmoved, KSPCB Chairman K. Sajeevan stated that HIL had taken no “adequate or earnest measures” to remove the waste despite repeated warnings.
In 2012, even after the Supreme Court imposed a nationwide ban on the production, distribution, and use of endosulfan, the toxic sludge at the Kochi site remained, leaching into soil and connected waterways. Water-quality tests confirmed measurable endosulfan residues in the Periyar River.
The Karnataka High Court, headed by Chief Justice D. H. Waghela, captured this reality (in another unrelated case) when it described the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board as “a complete failure” and “totally dysfunctional,” observing that it had been “in deep slumber for 30 years—surpassing even Kumbhakarna.” This indictment applies not to one board alone, but to the wider ecosystem of environmental governance in India.
But, this is not mere bureaucratic incompetence, but a deliberately designed regulatory architecture that ensures a failure of justice for both citizens and the environment, while conferring ease of doing business upon polluting entities. It is systematic, intentional, and structured to insulate polluters from accountability while transferring environmental damage and economic costs onto communities with no role in causing harm.
The recent regulatory amendments exempting Environmental Clearance (EC) for landfills and waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities expose this governance architecture with alarming clarity. The exemption rests on CPCB’s demonstrably false scientific premise—that landfills and WTE plants do not generate hazardous or infectious waste. By embedding this fiction into regulation, hazardous waste has been administratively recast as benign.
As India rapidly expands landfills and WTE facilities under these diluted safeguards, toxic residues will inevitably leach into soil and aquifers. Detection will be weakened by inadequate monitoring standards. Official reports will certify sites as “safe.” And by the time courts intervene—if they intervene at all—contamination will have already spread across regions, poisoning generations.
This is not merely a collapse of the precautionary principle or a failure of intergenerational equity. It is a betrayal of democracy itself—where regulatory institutions no longer protect citizens and the environment from harm, but instead function to shield polluters from accountability.
This is occurring at a global scale, where countries that prohibit toxic pesticides within their own jurisdictions continue to manufacture and export them to other nations—India being a major recipient—thereby externalising costs while privatising profits.
