contents - Jananeethi

ANNUAL REPORT - 2003-2004Officer of Jananeethi represents Jananeethi atthe Forum and actively got involved in theactivities of the Forum.VIII. ENVIRONMENT: ALTERNATEREPORTSa) Plachimada re-visited:Before any other organization oragencies stepped in the struggle of the peopleof Plachimada, in Palakkad district against thegiant Coco Cola factory, Jananeethi early in2002 had visited the site and made substantialstudies with respect to the quality of theproduct, the toxicity of the slurry, the alarmingsituations of pollution and water contamination,and other violations of environment and landlaws by the company. It was published onthe web site of Jananeethi atwww.jananeethi.org . The factory had refusedto visit the factory premises. After a yearJananeethi team again visited the place andspent a day with the agitating public. Thefactory management reluctantly allowed us toenter into the compound though it was understrict surveillance. We were not allowed totake samples of water and soil for tests. Thefactory administration miserably failed toprovide satisfactory answers to our manyquestions. A third visit was also carried outby Jananeethi team to get apprised of thesituations with respect to the farmingcommunity and villagers. Sequels to theoriginal report were published subsequently.26Plachimada revisitedb) Vagamon Report:The wide-spread encroachment of the‘dream land’ of the high ranges in Kerala andthe grassy meadows of Vagamon were verymuch in news following the Global InvestorsMeet in Kerala. A team of subject expertsrepresenting Jananeethi including scientists Dr.Francis Xavier, Dr. Gigi K. Joseph, Dr. JomyAugustin, Advocate George Pulikuthiyil,A.B.Prasad, Ajayakumar Meleveettil, T.K.Naveenachandran and K.K. Sudevan werein the panel. Members of Gandhi YuvaMandalam and environmental activists underthe leadership of Mr. Eby Emmanuel, Mr.Sunny Paikada, Ms. Susan Kottukappully andDr. Hilda also joined the Jananeethi team inthe course of the study. Jananeethi prepareda detailed report of the study and called for apress conference at Thrissur to announce theresults of the study. An abridged version ofthe report is appended here as annexure(Annexure 5), while the full report is availableat www.jananeethi.org