Pilgrims powders injurious to health

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Come November,  Erumely town in Kottayam district often sees itself in a sea  of colours thanks to the Ayyappa devotees who are on their annual pilgrimage to the hill shrine at Sabarimala. The  devotees cover themselves with powders of all hues while participating in the ‘petta thullal’, a ritual and belief to commemorate the victorious trip made by Lord Ayyappa and his army after slaying ‘mahishi’.The colours in the nearly 1-km path from  ‘kochambalam’ to ‘valiambalam’ via ‘Vavaru palli’  settle down only after the ‘makaravilakku’ in mid-January, once the Sabarimala  season is over. But it is clinically proven that the synthetic colour powder causes bronchial problems and skin diseases in many people, including officials posted in the town during the season.  State Pollution Control Board  analysis also revealed that the colours are  contaminated with toxic heavy metals like lead, manganese, zinc etc.PCB had made a chemical analysis report after examining samples of the  powder collected last year-end at the central laboratory during  the last two seasons as well as the  ongoing one. In the three collected samples, the lead content was 15.6, 17 and 22.8 mg/kg,  manganese  8.2, 3.2 and 3.8 mg/kg and zinc  2.0 and 3.4  mg/kg.The report was sent to the president  and secretary of  Erumely grama panchayat and  assistant commissioner and  executive engineer of  Travancore Devaswom Board, along with a letter dated November 18, 2011. But nothing happened.PCB’s second report based  on  samples from November 24 to December 2 , 2011, is more detailed with analysis of samples of  eight colours used at Erumely for the ritual. Among this, pink tops the list with a manganese content of 50 mg/kg  and red closely behind  with 42 mg/kg while magenta  has 30 mg/kg.Though most of the devotees from the state keep  ‘petta thullal’ as a low-key affair, almost all from the neighbouring states  make it mandatory to dance along with drum beats with lavish spreads of coloured powder on their body.“We prefer the use of natural colours for the ritual, for it is more healthy, though it can cost a little more,’’ says Paulus Eapen, environmental engineer, Kottayam.