Ravindranath Shanbhogue v. Union of India et al.

Reference :

186/2023

Complaint date :

No description

Status :

Provisional judgment

Place of jurisdiction :

India, Chennai

Plaintiffs types :

Individuals

Plaintiffs names :

Ravindranath Shanbhogue

Defendants :

State, Public collectivities, Company

Lawyers for Health and Environmental Justice :

Abhimanue Shrestha

Case nature :

Criminal court

Specificities :

Application for judicial review

Type(s), Product(s), Active substance(s) :

Endosulfan, Insecticid, Organochlorine

Requests :

Investigating the illegal dumping of endosulfan by the Plantation Corporation of Kerala in the Kasaragod district of Kerala; Safely extracting the endosulfan cans abandoned in the well; Carrying out analyses of the region's water and soil, as well as of the blood of local residents.

Name of the Court :

Green Tribunal (southern District) of Chennai, India

Jurisdiction level :

First instance

Decision date :

December 20, 2023

Decision nature :

Positive

Decision content :

No description

Legal basis :

No description

Court Ruling :

Link to the ruling

Summary :

On December 20, 2023, the Green Tribunal for South India issued a notice to the Union Government of India, the States of Karnataka and Kerala and their respective pollution control agencies, the Central Pollution Control Board and the Plantation Corporation of Kerala, for a committee of experts to analyze the pollution allegedly generated in the villages on the Karnataka-Kerala border by the illegal dumping of endosulfan in an abandoned well, and to submit its conclusions to the Tribunal by January 2, 2024.

The Tribunal, composed of Pushpa Sathyanarayana and Satyagopal Korlapati, thus recognized the seriousness of the alleged environmental situation and the failure of the authorities to take it into account since the alert launched on the subject in 2013.

From 1978, the state-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) sprayed endosulfan on its cashew crops in the Kasaragod region. In 2011, the Supreme Court banned the use and sale of endosulfan throughout India, and also ordered the disposal of existing stocks. In 2013, a retired PCK employee, Achutha Maniyani, revealed that around 600 liters of endosulfan had been illegally dumped in an abandoned well, which the company's managing director, Justus Karuna Rajan, denied (sources: South First). After learning of this, the Udupi-based Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights asked the district administration to take action, but its requests went unanswered. The Foundation, through its president, environmentalist Ravindranath Shanbhogue, therefore filed a complaint with the National Green Tribunal, to highlight the possible risk of groundwater contamination in villages close to the border between the two states.

As a reminder, populations exposed to endosulfan have a higher risk of birth defects, low IQ, learning difficulties, premature menstruation in women and delayed puberty in men.

In accordance with the Tribunal's opinion, officials from the Pollution Control Board, the two states and the Union of India therefore took soil and water samples in late December 2023 from the village of Minjipadavu, located in the far north of Kasargod district, Kerala, and sent them for analysis. They also visited the PCK work sheds and office.

The Tribunal will hear the rest of the case on January 2, 2024.

Scientific references :

No scientifice reference for this case.