Organic Farmer Murdered After Protesting Toxic Dumpsite

An Indian organic farmer and anti-pollution advocate was shot to death on Monday while in the midst of exposing an illegal dumpsite on his property to the media.

Challa Krishnamurthy started a 20-acre organic farm in Gowribidanur, India with the intention to make it a model for how others should treat the land. But despite his efforts to keep his property free of toxic chemicals, he discovered that a local distillery and sugarcane factory had been dumping untreated waste onto his property as well as others.[social_buttons]

After filing complaints the Pollution Control Board and many other agencies within the Indian government, none came to his aid. Krishnamurthy then contacted the local media to come document the waste site and mentioned that a truck driver from the factory had threatened him with a revolver that day.

According to one report, he was killed later that same day, mere hours before his scheduled meeting with the press. Police have arrested a man they suspect was behind the killing, but a clear motive has not been determined.

The Gowribidanur community united for a general strike in protest of the killing the next day. According to Suresh Heblikar, chairman of the organization Eco-Watch, the city has long been subject to gross amounts of illegal waste dumping.

“If you take Bangalore, for instance, the environment is destroyed,” he said. “ We are not reacting to them hard enough, and the governments made of varied caste-creed-faith combinations cannot be expected to act impartially.”

Any further information on the case is scarce, but I will update this post as more details become available.

Photo Credit: Scott Witt on Flickr under Creative Commons license.

17 thoughts on “Organic Farmer Murdered After Protesting Toxic Dumpsite”

  1. Its a shame that you guys can’t get it together out there and the corruption is so foul because someone is doing the right thing. The people who are money hungry will understand one day when even themselves and their own kids cannot live in their own country on their own property. Money doesn’t buy your health. Remember that.

  2. craig said
    Gross. The people should march up to hat sugarcane factory, take the owner and hang him in streets. That will show the corporate world that fucking with the people is no longer tolerated.

    i totally agree. not just but some more action for his family can be help from this problem.

  3. Uncle B, evil in the world existed long before Bush, hate to tell ya. And as untrendy as it is to say these days, a lot of the evil in the world has nothing to do with the US.
    Long after the United States loses its status as policeman of the world and most powerful empire, evil will take root somewhere new.

  4. Uncle B, i know you don’t believe what you wrote. The world is what you make it. Yes humans are rash animals that uneducated can run amock. But education, and love can solve those problems. Don’t forget the world is a lot safer today than it was a hundred year ago. Don’t give up us.

  5. “Challa Krishnamurthy started a 20-acre organic farm in Gowribidanur, India”

    Do you have a reading comprehension problem, Uncle B? This has nothing to do with America. It happened in India to an Indian farmer protesting an Indian business.

    I guess there’s no tragedy that can’t be blamed on the U.S. At least try to keep in mind that it was England that colonized India so it is their legacy, not America’s, that may be at play.

  6. I simply have to make a comment about Uncle B’s comment on “the conscienceless democratic capitalist way”. A corporate protectionist system is hardly democratic. I think it more proper to call it the oligarchic capitalist way, since the masses have no say as to what can and cannot be allowed to occur. If it were a democratic economic system, then the popular vote would be able to regulate industry.

  7. According to the American Capitalist, corporate war mongering and bullying system, “you are either a part of the steam roller or you are part of the road” This law is written in the blood of the many, across all lands. The Nazis first applied it until they found out that the Americans had a “bigger stick”. The law is now upheld and enforced from the top American military down to the school-yard bully – the guy with the fastest knife and the most nerve wins except for the mobs, they always win! Assholes who believe in romantic shit like rights, fairness, honor, respect, environmentally friendly, eco-correct, will die by the fender of a gas guzzler right up their furry little a-holes! Challa Krishnamurthy was simply naive and died for his naivety. I feel sorry for him, he didn’t understand the new world order, and probably never even heard of the “Bush Doctrine”, the original source of this evil, and much like his compatriots, who were charged big money for bad seed from Monsanto, then suicided when it did not live up to its promises, will be laughed at for their simplistic yet honorable and trusting outlook on mankind! No, Challa, we are not nice people, and yes Challa, your life is worth nothing to us anyway, especially the consiousless democratic capitalist way!

  8. Gross. The people should march up to hat sugarcane factory, take the owner and hang him in streets. That will show the corporate world that fucking with the people is no longer tolerated.

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