New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre's response on a plea claiming that excessive use of pesticides and other chemicals in crops and food items is leading to deaths across the country.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra issued notices to the Central government, the Agriculture Ministry, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and others, seeking their response on the plea.
Senior advocate Anita Shenoy told the court that the petitioner has collected data from across the country which shows the number of deaths due to pesticides is very high.
The top court was hearing a petition filed by lawyer Akash Vashishtha.
"The use and overuse of pesticides and inorganic chemical substances, including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, herbicides or any other inorganic chemical substances, on food crops and foods as a primary and major cause of cancer and other fatal diseases" emerged from.In th country.
"The use and overuse of pesticides, in other words, inorganic substances, are food pollution. Like air pollution, contamination of food and food crops is a silent killer. Once food or a food crop is contaminated with pesticides, Its toxicity spreads rapidly. The plea said that through the entire food chain, through processes like bio-accumulation and bio-magnification, toxic elements and compounds present in food, once they enter the human body, are neither excreted nor excreted. Cannot be accepted nor rejected.
Citing FSSAI data, the petition said that out of 72,499 food samples analyzed during 2015-16, 16,133 samples were found to be adulterated or misbranded.
The petition said authorities filed 1,450 criminal and 8,529 civil cases, resulting in convictions in 540 cases.During 2016–17, 18,325 samples out of 78,340 were found adulterated or misbranded, a total of 13,080 cases were registered, leading to 1,605 convictions.
The petition said that despite such enormity, scale and seriousness of the issue, the Central government and its officials have completely failed to prevent, control the increasing incidents of use and overuse of pesticides.
Citing data provided by the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine Storage, the petition said that in 2020-21, 161 people died due to pesticide poisoning in three of the eight states in the country alone - Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Kerala, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
"To reform the existing regulatory framework relating to pesticides and other inorganic chemical substances, including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, herbicides or any other inorganic chemical substances, on food crops and food items and to regulate the use of pesticides and insecticides on food crops and food items," the petition said. Issue instructions against excessive use of other inorganic chemical substances." Said.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra issued notices to the Central government, the Agriculture Ministry, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and others, seeking their response on the plea.
Senior advocate Anita Shenoy told the court that the petitioner has collected data from across the country which shows the number of deaths due to pesticides is very high.
The top court was hearing a petition filed by lawyer Akash Vashishtha.
"The use and overuse of pesticides and inorganic chemical substances, including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, herbicides or any other inorganic chemical substances, on food crops and foods as a primary and major cause of cancer and other fatal diseases" emerged from.In th country.
"The use and overuse of pesticides, in other words, inorganic substances, are food pollution. Like air pollution, contamination of food and food crops is a silent killer. Once food or a food crop is contaminated with pesticides, Its toxicity spreads rapidly. The plea said that through the entire food chain, through processes like bio-accumulation and bio-magnification, toxic elements and compounds present in food, once they enter the human body, are neither excreted nor excreted. Cannot be accepted nor rejected.
Citing FSSAI data, the petition said that out of 72,499 food samples analyzed during 2015-16, 16,133 samples were found to be adulterated or misbranded.
The petition said authorities filed 1,450 criminal and 8,529 civil cases, resulting in convictions in 540 cases.During 2016–17, 18,325 samples out of 78,340 were found adulterated or misbranded, a total of 13,080 cases were registered, leading to 1,605 convictions.
The petition said that despite such enormity, scale and seriousness of the issue, the Central government and its officials have completely failed to prevent, control the increasing incidents of use and overuse of pesticides.
Citing data provided by the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine Storage, the petition said that in 2020-21, 161 people died due to pesticide poisoning in three of the eight states in the country alone - Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Kerala, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
"To reform the existing regulatory framework relating to pesticides and other inorganic chemical substances, including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, herbicides or any other inorganic chemical substances, on food crops and food items and to regulate the use of pesticides and insecticides on food crops and food items," the petition said. Issue instructions against excessive use of other inorganic chemical substances." Said.
