HYDERABAD: When push comes to shove, a few who rise to the occasion to tackle the problem head-on. Fortunately, former Osmania University Professor K Purushotham Reddy is one of them. Armed with the principles of non-violence, Reddy has been spearheading various movements to protect farms from being ravaged by chemical factories. On the night of December 2, 1985, when methyl isocyanate leaked from Union Carbide India Limited’s pesticide factory in Bhopal, it killed at least 4,000 people and left many others with gas-related diseases for life. It is one of the worst industrial disasters in the world. It shook Reddy to the core. Months later, he himself became a victim of industrial pollution. Reddy witnessed effluents of a chemical company being dumped in a borewell adjoining his farm in Saroornagar, where his family used to work. His farm, like those of others in the vicinity, became uncultivable due to chemical effluents entering groundwater aquifers.
That shook his conscience and spurred him into action. His enthusiasm stoked a fire, creating a mass movement, which earned headlines like “Academics in Action” and “Padayatra of a Different Kind.” A string of agitations and movements that followed using the Gandhian values of non-violent protests, to reclaim and reinforce the democratic rights of victims. With the support of the media, Reddy, along with his colleagues Prof M Kodandaram, Prof F D Vakil, and others, also took out a padayatra to study the issue. They then approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which appointed an ‘Advocates Commission’ to study the matter. Based on the panel’s report, the court ordered the polluting company to shut down. This small victory had a domino effect across the country, as victims of industrial pollution from Nacharam in Secunderabad approached Reddy and his team, seeking support to wage a democratic fight against companies that were causing groundwater and air pollution. The affected villagers led by Reddy held a relay hunger strike for a week and marched to the then-Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board’s office with around 2,500 people. “We were lucky that a meeting of the board was underway, presided by an IAS officer named Natarajan. After it was over, the board ordered the company to set up an effluent treatment plant (ETP) and sanctioned Rs 70 lakh for a clean-up operation, which was completed within three days,” Reddy recalls. This was just the beginning of his activism. As similar cases cropped up in and around the country, activists began forming ‘anti-pollution committees’ for every movement. They co-opted the media to spread their message and garner public support.
