Age putting an end to his days in the army, Somasekharan Pillai returned to his little village in Kerala. Near to a little place called Nedumkuzhi. Awaiting him back home were his wife and two children. Pillai set up a small shop (bakery) two years ago, opposite a site that is now doing rounds in the media every other day - the Vilappilsala Waste Treatment Plant.

Entrance to the Vilappilsala Waste Treatment Plant

“A lot of people have heard our difficulties and went away. Nothing has changed,” he said reproachfully. “Life is very difficult here. The air we breathe is infected by the pungent odour that emanates from all the waste. Mosquitoes are in plenty. Our children are always sick. The pesticide that they use to get rid of the flies seems poisonous. My daughter and her children moved away because of the unhealthy environment.”

He added: “In the beginning when Sivankutty was the mayor, people in the neighbourhood opposed the move to bring the plant here. They promised us a garden, children’s park, hospitals, good roads and streetlights. They said tourists will be visiting the place. It was such a grand inauguration. Today, we can’t even sleep because of the sound of the vehicles that bring waste in the nights.”

Somasekharan Pillai in his shop

Pillai said that people started striking from the beginning. “But our movements were all suppressed. The police would resort to lathi charge. They filed cases against us, and people are still going to court for it. It has been 10 years now, and nothing they promised is here, including the compound walls around the plant. They don’t even have a board.”

While talking to Pillai, Salomi, who lives in the neighbourhood, stopped by. Earning her living doing household chores, she has been living in Vilappilasala for 27 years. She said: “The mosquito bites make my husband and children sick, they have breathing troubles. My husband is not healthy enough to work. We live in three cents of land and cannot afford to protect ourselves against the polluted air. Eagles and dogs that come because of the waste accumulated in the plant would attack the animals we raise (poultry). My daughter, who is in class VI, gets sick so often she can’t go to school most days.”


Salomi, a Vilappilsala-resident

Jalaja, who passed by, said that she was from Peyad but could get the smell even there. “So I can imagine the condition of people who live here.”

The plant itself was not open to public, owing to the growing troubles in the area. However, landfills of plastic could be seen from the housetops here. Shobana, who lived in one such house, said that part of the land used for the plant, at one time, belonged to her husband’s sister. “They told that they wanted the land to bring up gardens. It was much later we learnt about the waste treatment plant. By then we had already sold the land.”

Landfills of waste, at the plant. View from Shobana's house

Shobana added: “Problem is no one is ready to buy lands from here anymore. A girl in our neighbourhood, who got a marriage proposal recently, is struggling now. Her folks are trying to sell their land for the marriage expenses. But no one would buy it. People may buy land for very unreasonable prices. But how could we buy any land elsewhere with that kind of money? So we take all this silently.”


Shobana, outside her house near the waste-treatment plant

Taking the road up from the plant and reaching Thenavila-Paruthumpara junction, one can see the streams that flow along the roads, which are feared to be infested with the toxic content from the plant. Daisy John, who lives by the stream, said: “Once upon a time people used to drink from these streams. Now it is black water that flows most of the time. It is this water that flows to Vellakadavu and Aruvikkara. So we don’t use water coming in pipes. We use well water. They (corporation) procured all the land saying it was for developing a garden.”