Maharashtra’s fields of death

Toxic pesticides that have killed 63 farmers in the state since 2017, three in the last two months, are still in use

Toxic pesticides that have killed 63 farmers in the state since 2017, three in the last two months, are still in use.

Poorvi Kulkarni writes

Rekha Madavi, 45, did not know the name of the pesticide her husband, Rushi, 55, had been spraying on their cotton crop. All their pesticide containers had been seized by the police for examination.

“It is the same ‘mono’ aushadh (insecticide/medicine) that all of us in the village spray on cotton,” said Srikrishna Gedam, Madavi’s neighbour in Chak Mankapur, an adivasi village in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district.

On August 26, 2018, Rushi Madavi had left home to spray pesticide on the family’s five-acre farm, 2 km from his home. When he returned home around 3 pm, he complained of giddiness.

“He ate one rotibut began vomiting soon after. He could not speak. We called an ambulance,” said Rekha. He was given a saline drip, but when his condition deteriorated he was referred to the district general hospital in Gadchiroli, about 30 km away.

Rushi died that night in Gadchiroli. “Acute respiratory distress syndrome due to insecticidal poisoning,” said the death certificate that his youngest son, Bhimrao, 25, showed us.

Rushi was not the only victim of insecticide poisoning this year in eastern Maharashtra. In two months, between August and September 2018, it had killed two other farmers in Chandrapur and Akola districts.

In 2017, 63 farmers died from the fatal effects of handling toxic pesticides in Maharashtra, most from eastern and northeastern parts. Cotton, the secondmost cultivated crop in Vidarbha after soyabean, accounts for 50 per cent of total pesticide use in India. It grows on 1.6 million hectares of land across Vidarbha’s nine cotton-growing districts in the 2018 kharif (monsoon) cropping season.

Apart from the three deaths this year, accidental exposure to pesticides during spraying has landed 135 farmers from Yavatmal in hospitals since July 2018, according to district health office records. Our investigations showed that farmers in these parts routinely seek medical treatment to deal with giddiness, vomiting and blurred vision caused by pesticide poisoning.

Our investigations showed that safety kits to be used while handling or spraying pesticides are not available in adequate numbers at krishi seva kendras. Instruction pamphlets distributed by the agriculture department do not reach all farmers. And pesticide containers are sold without measuring cups. Unregistered pesticides too are available for sale, according to local farmers. This is in violation of the Insecticides Act, 1968.

Pesticides can cause immediate health effects in people who are preparing, mixing or using them, said the 2016 guidelines on highly hazardous pesticides published by the World Health Organization (WHO). Pesticides enter the body through the skin, the lungs (inhalation) and the mouth (ingestion), according to another 2016 scientific paper, Farmers' Exposure to Pesticides: Toxicity Types and Ways of Prevention. Inhalation of pesticide fumes results in serious damage to the nose, throat, and lung tissues, the paper said.

In the lane parallel to Rushi’s house, Srikrishna Gedam pointed to an array of insecticides he had been using this kharif season. Among these is a container with the brand name 'Monostar'. It is a highly toxic insecticide called monocrotophos that consists of organophosphorus compounds. Organophosphate pesticides, which proved fatally toxic for Rushi Madavi, can lead to convulsions, coma and sometimes, death, according to the 2016 scientific paper cited earlier. But farmers insisted that its use is unavoidable, at least in the first cycle of pest control for cotton.

Gedam did not get the protective kit that is supposed to be worn while handling the insecticide. “He covers the face with a scarf sometimes,” said Surekha, his wife.

Following the spate of deaths in 2017, the Maharashtra government had set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe their circumstances and recommend preventive measures. Two petitions — one in the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court and one in the Supreme Court—had also been filed by activists to demand a permanent ban on hazardous pesticides. While the Supreme Court is hearing the petition filed in October 2017 to ban the use of pesticides banned or restricted in other countries, many recommendations made by the SIT are still on paper.

As many as 21 state-specific recommendations were listed in the SIT’s report to improve outreach mechanisms of the state agriculture department. At least 11 suggestions have yet to be implemented and the status of seven are unclear. Three of the recommendations —identifying pest hotspots in villages, training krishi seva kendra retailers and publicising biopesticides—have been accepted and implemented.

Why no permanent ban

The state government had, on November 1, 2017, banned three insecticides —monocrotophos, acephate, diafenthiuron —and two combination insecticides —fipronil + imidacloprid and profenofos + cypermethrin —for a period of two months in five districts.

Barring diafenthiuron, all the other insecticides and combinations are classified under class 1b (highly hazardous) and II (moderately hazardous) by WHO. Based on their oral and dermal toxicity, pesticides are classified by

WHO into five categories:

These range from class 1a (extremely hazardous) to

Class U (unlikely to cause hazard). In the current pesticide spraying time, however, there is no ban on any of these pesticides.

“A proposal to ban these five insecticides again is under consideration. A decision is yet to be taken," said Vijay Chaudhari, deputy secretary, department of agriculture, Maharashtra. “But we will be able to ban it only for 60 days.” A state government may prohibit sale, distribution and use of any insecticide, for not exceeding 60 days if it is likely to involve risk to human beings or animals, as per Section 27 (1) of the Insecticides Act, 1968.

The powers to permanently ban or cancel registration of insecticides rests with the central government, state government officials maintained. Bijay Kumar, then additional chief secretary, department of agriculture, Maharashtra wrote, on March 27, to the secretary, central insecticides board and registration committee (CIBRC) at the union ministry of agriculture, to permanently ban these five pesticides. Six months on, there has been no response yet.

Not enough protective gear

“Agriculture department must make protective equipment available to all farmers through krishi seva kendras,” the SIT report had stated. Section 39 of the Insecticides Rules, 1971, requires persons handling insecticides during application to wear a protective suit consisting of overalls, hat, goggles, boots and gloves. Section 40 also provides for respirators to be used by workers and Section 42 stipulates that pesticide manufacturers must arrange for worker training in safety precautions.

Ajay Potwar, who runs a krishi seva kendra, Shri Sai Traders, at the Sawali taluka headquarters, has not had any protective kits supplied to him for distribution. “We have been given four kits by the companies which we lend to farmers as and when they need it and (they) are asked to return it after use,” he said.

Like most stores, none of the pesticide containers at Potwar’s store had instruction leaflets or measurement caps attached to them. Every insecticide package should include a leaflet, as per Section 18 (1) of the Insecticides Rules, 1971. Providing measurement caps with pesticide containers was one of the SIT’s recommendations.

“It is important for safety kits too to be attached and sold along with pesticides,” said PR Madavi, Sawali taluka agriculture officer. “The problem is that they have to be separately bought by farmers and many do not end up buying.”

Pesticide consumption and usage in Maharashtra was the highest— 13,496 metric tonnes—in India in 201617, according to data maintained by the directorate of plant protection, quarantine and storage. The pesticide industry in India reported annual sales of over ~130 billion in 2015.

Why is there laxity in using safety kits then? “Farmers complain that the protective kit with the head gear and the coat is too hot to be worn in the climate here,” said Madavi. In such conditions, the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides framed by the Food and Agriculture Organization has advised prohibition of harmful pesticides.

Section 3.5 of the Code states that pesticides whose handling and application require the use of uncomfortable or inaccessible personal protective equipment should be avoided. But, these guidelines remain on paper too.

Some stores in Yavatmal were making an attempt to raise awareness about the need to adopt safety measures, we found. For instance, at the Sagar Krishi Kendra in Umarkhed taluka headquarters, a mannequin clad in protective gear was on display.

The taluka agriculture office here has held many training sessions for retailers to ensure that they spread awareness among farmers and urge them to buy protective kits, said store owner Rehanulla Khan.

Khan has sold 290 kits this season. Each kit is priced at ~195 and includes a cap, a face mask, overalls and gloves. Boots are not included in this deal though Section 39 of the Insecticides Rules mandates it. “At least 50 per cent of the farmers are abiding by these precautions now,” said Khan.

After the 2017 tragedy in Yavatmal when 21 deaths were recorded in the three months leading to October, the district administration had moved to initiate safety measures. But it wasn't enough, said local farmers.

At the gram panchayat office in Akoli in Yavatmal’s Umarkhed taluka, Baburao Waghmare, the deputy sarpanch, and other farmers showed us the three kits that the government had given them. “Anybody who needs it can borrow from here, use and return. One of these has been borrowed by a farmer,” Waghmare said. The other two, however, were unused and items such as goggles and gloves have not even been unpacked yet.

“Yes, the government gave the gram panchayat kits for us to use. But, our spraying rounds were over by then,” said Dnyaneshwar Shire, 36, a farmer and farm labourer from Akol.

Delay in disbursement

For Rohidas Jadhav, 38, a daily wage labourer from Amaanpur village in Umarkhed taluka, pesticide spraying is off the list of jobs he can take on. On September 14, 2017, after seven days of continuous pesticide spraying, Jadhav had blacked out, his tongue swollen and unable to speak. “I was admitted to the intensive care unit of a private hospital in Pusad for two days and ended up spending up to ~30,000. I cannot afford to do this again,” Jadhav said. He did not get any compensation for his medical expenses.

Jadhav now only works on sugarcane farms and takes up other civil and electrical works.

To mitigate these hardships, the Maharashtra government had, on July 19, 2018, come out with a compensation policy of ~0.4million for the families of those who died due to pesticide poisoning. Those disabled by pesticide poisoning were to be granted ~50,000 to ~0.2 million and those hospitalised, ~1,000 to ~14,000. But, there have been delays in disbursing these amounts too. Shalu—widow of Sainath Madavi who died on October 17, 2017—received ~0.2 million in August 2018, 10 months after her husband died. She is entitled to ~0.4million as per the compensation policy. She has been struggling to repay loans, manage household expenses and care for her two school-going daughters. The compensation amounts are drawn from two separate funds and separate proposals have to be sent to the state authorities, explained Chandrapur collector Kunal Khemnar. “We have sent the proposal for an additional amount of ~0.2 million and will disburse it when we receive it,” he said.

Other important recommendations of the SIT were to distribute pamphlets, hold fortnightly meetings on pest control measures and fill vacant posts in the agriculture department to strengthen outreach. However, 28 per cent posts in the state’s agriculture department are vacant, according to data collected from the department. Of the taluka-level posts of taluka agriculture officers and quality control inspectors, 40 per cent are vacant.

Public awareness meetings were held once a month in every village, said BV Nandanwar, agriculture supervisor, Sawali taluka. “We have also distributed over 8,000 pamphlets on different aspects of pest control,” he added. There are more than 27,140 rural households in Sawali taluka.

Chak Mankapur shifted from paddy to cotton, and the problem worsened

Rushi’s village has seen another pesticide death in 2017.

“Farmers complain that the protective kit with the head gear and the coat is too hot to be worn in the climate here”