The Contact Group on endosulfan and new persistent organic pollutants to the Stockholm Convention, meeting in Geneva, finalised a draft decision proposing global ban on endosulfan with many exemptions on Thursday.
The draft will now go to the conference of parties for approval. If approved, the ban will cover technical endosulfan, its related isomers and endosulfan sulphate (one of the degradation products of endosulfan). Exemptions are proposed for use against specified pests in cotton, jute, coffee, tea, tobacco, cowpeas, beans, tomato, okra, eggplant, onion, potato, chillies, apple, mango, gram, arhar, maize, rice, wheat, groundnut and mustard.
Exemptions
This would mean that endosulfan will be allowed to be used for several of the crops in India, as wanted by the Indian delegation. Their use would be mainly against aphids in most crops besides several specified pests such as bollworms in cotton, berry borer and stem borer in coffee and a host of insects in tea. Exemptions have even been proposed for use of endosulfan for hopper and fruit flies in mango and several pests in tomato. (They are not generally recommended usages in India). Countries will have five years to implement the ban as per terms of the treaty.
Compliance mechanism
The conference is also working on improving the compliance mechanism for banned persistent organic pollutants and financial assistance to developing countries and countries with economies in transition to meet the treaty obligations.
