The environmentalist says no agitation or litigation has so far succeeded either in getting it closed or in getting the industry to stop polluting the air and water near Chaliyar.

A Communist government rules in Kerala but it has so far failed to take any step to end the pollution of the river, says the poet. The state pollution control board's studies and recommendations have so far have had no impact on the industry, which have not taken any effort to upgrade their technology. The Kerala High Court has been moved but matters have not progressed beyond formation of committees, though the industry has been there for the past 35 years.

Now what? That was the question she asked a meeting on the Chaliyar issue here. ``I must have some answer for the people of Vazhakkad, who are the worst affected by Grasim,'' she said. Will environmental groups in Delhi help them? Should the Supreme Court be moved? But all she had was a memorandum to be presented to the owner of the Grasim Industries, Kumaramangalam Birla pleading with him to save Vazhakkad and Chaliyar river.

She said that the unit was literally eating into the bamboo forests in Wayanad and air pollution had caused chronic bronchitis among villagers, 14 per cent of men and 7 per cent of women, twice the number of those suffering from it in the Capital.

Every home in the village has at least one cancer patient, she said. At the bus stop in Vazhakkad like in no other bus stop any where, there were two stretchers kept in readiness for any pedestrian falling down, giddy and weak from the pollution.

She screened a documentary on the river which showed villagers saying they were resigned to their destiny, to breathe air laced with chemicals. ``Our hands itch and burn when we dip them in the river. We collect sand and shells from it. We fish here. And when the wells dry up we need to drink its water. But it is killing us,'' they say.

A representative of the Birla-owned unit is shown saying that they spend about Rs 2 crore each year treating effluents released by the plant. But the the environmentalist says the content of mercury and lead released into the water is high and fumes from the factory are corroding steel pipes in nearby areas. Reports by an environment panel set up by the Kerala Assembly, as well as that of the Sengupta Committee of the Central Pollution Control Board, say that the unit is a polluter.

The agitations for measures against the unit have failed so far because the jobs of 3,000 of workers also hang in the balance. But if it remains open more people will die of cancer in the village, says the activist.

Has no one any powers to close a polluting industry or to force it to upgrade its technology? asks Sugathakumari.