The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on Saturday urged the Ministry of Agriculture to ban the use of Glyphosate, which had been declared carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). A petition with 201609 signatures of people favouring a complete ban on the weedicide has been submitted to Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar on Saturday.
"Glyphosate is blatantly being used for illegally grown Herbicide Tolerant (HT) cotton (HT soya was also reported from Gujarat) and this has been going on for years with the full knowledge of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee and State Governments, but it continues unabated and with open defiance of the law of the land,"the SJM said in its petition.
“In fact, the government order in July 2020 stating that “No person shall use Glyphosate except through Pest Control Operators (PCOs)” may end up with actually legalizing and endorsing the use of Glyphosate by promoting a proliferation of PCOs. The said order is meaningless and will be impossible to implement based on experience with inability to control other illegal practices like illegal HT crops with which glyphosate is presently being used. Given the meaningless order and incapability to implement, it will result in increased damage to consumer health, farmer interests, farm workers livelihoods and ecology,” the SJM said in its petition.
“There are more than one lakh cases pending against Monsanto/Bayer company for damages by the users of its Glyphosate based herbicide after they (the litigants) developed ten different types of cancer including non Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL),” it said.
The delegation told the minister that although this weedicide is allowed to be used in tea gardens, Kerala state which is a major tea growing state has asked for a ban on Glyphosate, West Bengal, again a tea growing state has restricted Glyphosate use to only six tea growing districts and several other states including Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have moved towards banning of Glyphosate due to their concerns for consumers, farmers and environment.
Glyphosate is reportedly being used both for weed control as well as to desiccate crops prior to harvesting and there is strong opposition to it on both these grounds as glyphosate and its adjuvants are absorbed by the plant and consumed by humans, with serious health consequences. Glyphosate is a known carcinogen and endocrine disruptor and is linked with several serious illnesses.
Glyphosate contaminates soil and water, results in the destruction of useful plant species which are the food of the poor who eat uncultivated greens (so called weeds) growing in, or alongside the main crop, and reduces the population of beneficial insects which are vital for securing long term crop yields as pollinators and pest controllers..