when it comes to pollution (which is abundant in india in urban areas and more dangerously in rural areas via chemical factories, coal mines, leather tanniers, smelting units, ship breaking yards like alang, etc) - which is the symbol of india's 'development' - one of the common questions is that how to 'prove' that pollution in pollution zones (cuddalore, silver corridor-gujarat, mettur, eloor, patancheru, etc) and industrial zones (where pollution monitoring is virtually non existent) in fact truly affects the people livin there directly.

in the pollution hot spot of eloor (kerala) an interesting study/analysis has been done and it shows that "residues were found in food articles such as milk, fish, chicken and duck meat, coconut, banana, papaya, curry leaves and a host of other items produced by Eloor residents in their homes and backyards."

the point to be noted is that this kind of monitoring is precisely the job of pollution control board (both state and central), which is almost like a dead body in its functioning and hence the 'proof' at each and every turn is in the lap of the affected communities itself.

the argument is 'india has to develop', 'gdp is important', 'ngo's and some local people are against development', etc in order to banish the protests from local people on the dangerous pollution levels. not only the argument, the cases in cuddalore, eloor, etc the 'proof' unfairly and unjustly is in the midst of poor local communities who not only face harassment, pollution, but also 'burden' of proof - all in the name of 'development'.(pollution hot spot of eloor in kerala. it is shocking to see the progressive state of kerala, where human parameters is one of the advanced in the world, tolerate such willful pollution which affects tens of thousands of keralites directly)