Division bench consisting of Justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Justice Swapna Joshi issued notice to respondents on a petition filed by social activists Jammu Anand, Haribhau Gulhane and Ambedkarite Party of India, directed them to file reply by October 30. The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court issued notice to State Agriculture Secretary, Agriculture.Commissioner and Yavatmal Collector on the petition against the alleged apathy of administration in 18 deaths caused due to pesticide spray in Yavatmal district.
The petitioner demanded stern penal action including registration of culpable homicide offence against the officers, directors of insecticide manufacturing company, dealers and retailers and compensation of Rs 20 lakh to family members of deceased persons and Rs 10 lakh each to families of those hospitalised.
Yavatmal is the District Head Quarter of Yavatmal District and is one of the major cotton growing districts of Maharashtra. About half of the gross cropped areas in the district is under cotton cultivators. It is the important cash crop of the district the Progressive cultivators use improved variety of cotton. Maharashtra is one of the major cotton producing states in India about one-third area under cotton cultivation is in Maharashtra.
Since July 19, 17 farmers have died of similar pesticide inhalation in the district while at least 12 more deaths are being investigated in the districts of Akola (5), Amravati (2), Nagpur (2), Bhandara (2) and Buldana (1). Over 800 people are in hospital, with symptoms of diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea, stomach ache, and vision impairment. Yavatmal ironically is the farmer suicide capital of Vidarbha.
According to sources, “the damage has been caused by excessive inhalation of organophosphate and organochloride groups of insecticides, which first enter the fat below the skin, and then the blood. Patients have to be treated with Atropin drug, which causes psychosis and patients have to be tied to the bed if they become restive.”
Under the Insecticides Act, 1968, officials are required to train farmers in the use of pesticides. However farmers go by what the local, privately owned Krushi Seva Kendras, through which pesticides are sold, tell them..The packets have instructions in several languages, but the print is too small, and not all farmers can read. Using a new formula for pesticide, most of the farmers reportedly were not wearing protective gear while spraying and were poisoned by the pesticide which did not have any antidotes.
Five Krishi Seva Kendra owners have also been booked for selling pesticides without protective gear, according to the government sources.
This year, intensive spraying lasted from July 1 to about September 3-4. The graph of deaths and hospitalisation rose accordingly. At the Yavatmal GMC, there were 24 admissions in July, 114 in August and 231 in September.
Over 450 were rushed to rural hospitals run by the Public Health Department in that period. With symptoms like blurred vision, nausea, skin rashes, headaches and dizziness, over 100 farmers are still recovering at the district hospital in Yavatmal. Some have lost their sight and others are in the intensive care unit or ICU in a critical state.
“Protective gear is not used by the farmers while spraying. The cotton crop which is close to harvesting is nearly 6 ft tall and when a farmer or the labourer sprays the standing crop, he also happens to contract the chemicals which is resulting into poisoning,” said State agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar. The fickle monsoon this year saw the height of the cotton plants shoot up and in most farms they were as tall as a farmhand whereas normally they are only waist-high.
“There was negligence on many levels and all that will come out in the inquiry. If it is found that the pesticides that the companies are supplying are more than the prescribed strength, then action will be initiated against them,” said Fundkar.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has already ordered a high-level probe to ascertain the causes and initiate remedial measures while announcing compensation to aggrieved families. The government has also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the family of the deceased. It is now taking steps regulating the sale of pesticides to ensure that they are cleared after safety checks and farmers use protective gear while spraying insecticides.
Acting director of the Central Institute of Cotton Research, Vijay Waghmare said that “farmers have been increasingly using cocktails of pesticides, which we strictly recommend against. Also, there was a lot of humidity in September and the farmers probably didn’t cover themselves properly to escape it, letting in a lot of pesticide through their skin and noses. Humidity also multiplies pests.”
Waghmare also said that “farmers have been increasingly using cocktails of pesticides, which we strictly recommend against. Also, there was a lot of humidity in September and the farmers probably didn’t cover themselves properly to escape it, letting in a lot of pesticide through their skin and noses. Humidity also multiplies pests.”
Also according to farmers due to failing of the BT cotton crop, it is attracting a lot of pests, the amount of pesticides to be sprayed has gone up. Now, a new sprayer from China is being used, which is one of the main reasons that caused the death. The farmers are using power pumps more this time. These pumps can spray up to 10 acres per day as against normal sprayers which spray up to two acres a day.
For normal sprayers, the farmer needs to fill in the tank every two hours so he gets a break, but with power pumps, he manages to spray in one go. The new kind of pump sprayers have fine holes and spray like mist that easily envelopes the person’s body. The problem has been caused by the extra height of the plant, mist spraying by a new kind of sprayer and cocktails of insecticides. And September happens to be the month of maximum humidity so farmers tend not to cover their bodies properly.
