Yavatmal pesticide poisoning victims sue Syngenta in Swiss court

NAGPUR: A survivor of 2017’s pesticide poisoning episode in Yavatmal and kin of two deceased have filed a plea against Swiss pesticide maker Syngenta International at a court in company’s home own country demanding damages. The case has been filed in the civil court for the city of Bale.
Pesticide Action Network (PAN)-India through which the litigation has filed has demanded Syngenta should be refrained from selling brands like Polo which is a diafenthiuron-based pesticide to farmers in India.
Polo product is banned in Switzerland where the company is based, says Pesticide Action Network (PAN)-India. The three victims claimed that using Polo had led to the deaths and incapacitation.
PAN-India has also made a complaint before the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The person who survived is unable to carry out physical labour, says PAN-India. The NGO has not disclosed names of the litigants.
In 2017, over 80 farmers and farm workers, had died of accidental inhalation of pesticides while spraying. A majority of the deaths was in Yavatmal. Polo made by Syngenta was among the pesticides reported to be used by the deceased. A large number of them had fallen sick too. The victims were reported to have been using other brands too.
Narsihma Reddy of PAN-India told TOI that out of the 250 cases scanned, there was enough evidence that included police records in the three that Polo had been used by the victims.
A meeting of lawyers from both the sides is expected to take place after which the hearing may begin. The litigants are two widows and a person who had used the pesticide himself. “The product is banned in Switzerland due to its hazardous nature,” he said.
Devanand Pawar, an activist from Yavatmal who coordinated in getting the details, said grounds of the litigation are that the company had violated their right to life by selling the hazardous pesticide. “Syngenta has been selling Polo without prescribing any antidote in case of poisoning. This caused difficulties in treating the victims. Even the warning on the packets is not easily legible, due to the small print,” he said. Case studies of 51 other victims have also been attached in the plea.
The company also said that no lawsuits have been filed against it in India for the 2017 events. Unlike other companies, Syngenta was not involved at any time in the criminal investigation conducted in the matter.
“We reject that Polo was the trigger for tragic incidents in Yavatmal. Polo was not responsible for the events was also confirmed by the special investigation team (SIT) formed by the Maharashtra government after the incidents,” read an email sent by Syngenta. Between 2013 and 2019 the company has trained over 42 million people in the safe use of crop protection product, the vast majority of whom are small scale farmers in Asia, Africa, and South America. Polo is registered by the Central Insecticide Board and Regisratoin Committee, said the company.