CHERTHALA, Kerala, Dec 4 (IPS/IFEJ) - Lulled by social indices that compare with the developed world's and tourist brochures that gush over 'God's Own Country', the deaths of 125 people from an outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease, chikungunya, has come as a reality check for people in this southern state.

Authorities and experts, starting with federal health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, were quick to point out that the outbreak, which raged through September and October, was linked to insanitary conditions fostered by creeping environmental degradation in Kerala, known for its lush, spice-growing hills, riverine valleys and serene backwaters that empty into the Arabian sea.

Nowhere did the epidemic strike harder than in the state's prime tourist destination of Alappuzha district, whose population of two million people suddenly found suddenly itself at the mercy of aedes aegypti mosquito and the virus it carried.

Apparently, a decline in traditional agriculture, combined with a rise in industries related to the export of marine and coir products had upset the delicate ecology of the backwaters and turned Cherthala into a vast cesspool of industrial and other effluents.

The high level of organic, chemical and sanitary waste has led to a marked decrease in the oxygen levels, which in turn resulted has in the extermination of fish and toads, natural predators which keep mosquitoes under control.

According to local residents, an early indication of the increasing contamination of the waterways was the large number of dead fish found floating in the nearby Vembanad lake, a few years ago. This was a direct consequence of the contamination of the lake water by the coir and other industrial units situated close to it, they alleged.

Local farmers have another explanation for the rising levels of mosquito infestation. A steady decline in the prices of the paddy produced locally had resulted in most of the farmers giving up rice cultivation, they say.