The Conference of Parties to the Stockholm Convention in Geneva on Friday approved the recommendation for elimination of production and use of endosulfan and its isomers worldwide, subject to certain exemptions.
The decision will not be binding on India unless specifically ratified by the country. However, the Indian delegation to the Convention concurred with the decision after its concerns about exemptions and financial assistance were addressed, according to information reaching here.
The Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Convention, which recommended the ban last year, will work with parties and observers to come up with alternatives to endosulfan. The Convention will also approve financial assistance to developing countries for replacing endosulfan with alternatives.
The actual decision is to list technical endosulfan and related isomers in Part I Annex A to the Convention with specific exemptions for production as allowed in the Register of Specific Exemptions and/or use on crop-pest complexes as listed with the decision. This would require 173 countries, which are parties to the Convention, to take steps for a ban on production and use of endosulfan. However, exemptions will be available for five years, extendable for another five years. The listing takes one year to be effective.
Exemptions will be available for application of endosulfan against 44 pests in 22 crops — cotton, jute, coffee, tea, tobacco, cowpeas, beans, tomato, okra, eggplant, onion, potato, chillies, apple, mango, gram, arhar, maize, paddy/rice, wheat, groundnuts and mustard. The pests include aphids in most of the exempted crops, bollworms, jassids, whiteflies, thrips and leafroller in cotton, Bihar hairy caterpillar and yellow mites in jute and berry borer and stem borer in coffee. For tea, application of endosulfan is allowed for a host of pests including caterpillars and tea mosquitoes. Endosulfan will be allowed to be used against hopper and fruit fillies in mango and several pests in tomato. In rice, use will be permitted against white jassids, stem borer, gall midge and rice hispa and in wheat against termites and pink borer, besides aphids.
The conference took the decision after considering the risk profile and risk management evaluation for endosulfan done by the Review Committee and the exemptions decided upon by contact group on endosulfan and new persistent organic pollutants.
Endosulfan is the 22nd chemical to be listed in the Convention.
Keywords: Stockholm Convention, endosulfan ban demand
Comments:
Great Indian rulers . They are shameless in safeguarding the interests of Bayer AG and Makhteshim Agan of Israel, the world's only manufacturers of Endosulfan and have their manufacturing facilities in India only besides the public sector Hindustan Pesticides. Is it to safeguard the interests of the Indian agriculture. After all there are alternative pesticides available for all major cereals and vegetables produced in India. The corrupt Indian administrators are seeking this extension to help Bayers - Aventis and Makhteshim - Agan as their welfare is more important to them than the 300 million people affected by this hazardous chemical already banned by 152 countries in the world including the mother countries of Bayers AG and Makhteshim Agan .
Since exemption is applicable to majority of crops other than Cashew, the use of Endosulfan will be carried on for few more years. Probably lobbying by the pesticide industry will attempt to prevail on the regime to extend the usage for the next 11 full years! At the same time this threat can be overcome if there is a concerted mission around the globe for identifying alternatives to Endosulfan. Our people should not over celebrate the approval of the recommendation for elimination of production and use of Endosulfan by Stockholm Convention at Geneva. Kerala Chief Minister Achuthanandan has to take forward the on-going protests against Endosulfan by interacting with Public Interest groups in other countries, especially in China, Uganda and Indonesia where the usage of Endosulfan will be continued for various crops as in the case of India. These nations too had joined with India in the Stockholm convention on POPs at Geneva for a compromise while accepting the ban on Endosulfan with exemptions. Even the Public Interest Groups in Philippines, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea and Sri Lanka will still be vigilant for ensuring the immediate implementation of the ban in their respective nations and also for preventing smuggling of the pesticide in disguise from overseas. Peoples's forums and student communities through-out our country have to be imparted knowledge on the issue. Waging war against the use of the deadly pesticide Endosulfan will certainly get a place in his agenda together anti-corruption movements whether the veteran Octogenarian crusader comes back to power on declaration of the Assembly Elections or not.
Let's not just blame the government as farmers in Bhavnagar district in Gujarat are against the ban. They say that Endosulfan is an important insecticide which they have been safely using for over 40 years.
Though it will not make any immediate impact to the current situation, this decision comes as a relief to the people who are fighting against Endosulfan.
There are lots of screening in laboratories which ought to certify the harmlessness of a pesticide for approval by government. The companies get the desired results favoring them for pittance grant to 'reputed'laboratories to get the pesticide approved. It is in the blood of traditional politicians and officials to get suitcases of money betraying the innocent farmer. This is India. The Sethu project environmental impact assessment was given to NEERI again to get the desired report though institutes like National Institute of Oceanography and even international bidders with repute were denied to undertake the project. Alas how many scams to investigate with each rotten scam. I dont know when my nation will wake up.