Kochi | The Kerala High Court has sought the response of the Centre and the state government on a PIL seeking to immediately halt the pineapple cultivation activities at the Athirappilly and Kallal plantation estates here on the ground that it poses a significant ecological risk.

Observing that the land in question has the "potentiality of a man-animal conflict", a bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar V M asked the Plantation Corporation of Kerala, which holds the lease to the site, to consider and dispose of the representation against the pineapple cultivation there.

The court also dropped the name of state Agriculture Minister P Prasad from the list of parties in the matter and listed it for further hearing on March 26.

The observation and directions came on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by wildlife activist Angels Nair, who has claimed that the pineapple was being cultivated by the Plantation Corporation of Kerala despite a stop memo and objection issued by the Forest Department.

According to Nair, the work was going on despite the 50-year lease agreement entered into by the Forest Department and the Plantation Corporation in 1970 having ended six years ago.

"Pineapple monoculture involves heavy use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides that leach into the Chalakudy river.

"The pineapple farm poses a significant ecological risk due to soil erosion, loss of food and fodder, increased human-wildlife conflicts, and pesticides contaminating the Chalakudy river, endangering the health of three million human lives and millions of flora and fauna," the petition has claimed.