The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): On Friday, the Supreme Court sought a response from the Centre and other authorities regarding a plea claiming that excessive use of pesticides and chemicals on crops and food items is causing numerous deaths across the country. A bench consisting of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notices to the Union government, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and others, seeking their replies to the plea.
Senior advocate Anitha Shenoy informed the court that the petitioner had collected data nationwide showing a high number of deaths due to pesticides. The plea, filed by advocate Akash Vashisht, highlighted the serious health risks posed by the overuse of pesticides and other inorganic chemicals on food crops and items.
“The overuse of pesticides and inorganic chemicals, including insecticides, weedicides, fungicides, rodenticides, and herbicides on food crops, has emerged as a leading cause of cancers and other fatal diseases in the country. This issue constitutes food pollution, akin to air pollution, and is a silent killer,” the plea stated. It emphasized that once food crops are contaminated with pesticides, their toxicity spreads through the food chain via bio-accumulation and bio-magnification, making the toxic elements difficult to remove from the human body.
Citing FSSAI data, the plea noted that out of 72,499 food samples analyzed during 2015-16, 16,133 were found adulterated or misbranded. This led to 1,450 criminal and 8,529 civil cases, resulting in 540 convictions. In 2016-17, 18,325 of 78,340 samples were found adulterated or misbranded, with 13,080 cases filed and 1,605 convictions.
Despite the scale and seriousness of the issue, the petition argued that the Central government and its authorities have failed to effectively control and prevent the overuse of pesticides. The plea referenced data from the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage, which reported 161 deaths in 2020-21 due to pesticide poisoning across three states: Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Kerala. This data came from eight reported states including Goa, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.
The petition called for a revamp of the existing regulatory framework related to the use of pesticides and other inorganic chemicals on food crops. It urged the Supreme Court to direct the authorities to implement stricter controls to protect public health from the dangers of pesticide overuse.