Pesticide poisoning: Over 1,000 affected in Vid

Yavatmal/ Chandrapur/ Nagpur: Preliminary government data suggests that pesticide poisoning, which has rocked the state just before Diwali, has affected over 1,000 persons in Vidarbha.

Having witnessed 952 pesticide poisoning cases and 19 deaths, Yavatmal district, dubbed as the 'killing field' of Vidarbha due to large number farmer suicides in the past, now also has the infamy of reporting maximum number of farmers' distress cases since September this year.

The provisional data collected by the administration puts the total number of pesticide deaths at 19 while the total number of cases reported at the Yavatmal Government Medical College and Hospital was 450 (11 dead) till October 12. At present 23 patients are under treatment at the Yavatmal GMC of whom 6 are in the ICU and 3 are on ventilator. In rural hospitals under civil surgeon, 220 patients were reported of whom 94 are under treatment. In PHCs under DHO, 282 patients have been reported and they have been discharged after giving preliminary aid. In all 8 deaths were reported from rural parts.

Initial reports indicate that most of the farmers were using highly poisonous concoction of insecticides meant for sugar cane crop for spraying on cotton crop. Agro dealers and retailers are selling these insecticides even as there is no crop of sugar cane in the district. This highly poisonous concoction is allegedly responsible for large scale of poisoning cases during spraying in the cotton belt.

In Chandrapur, the preliminary data collected from all over the district paints a very sketchy picture. According to figures gathered from separate government agencies, the district witnessed 2 pesticide poisoning deaths while the number of affected persons was put at 52. Statistics available with the resident deputy collector Vaibhav Nawadkar's office puts the number of deaths at 2 deaths and 24 admissions of patients in rural hospitals suffering from pesticide exposure while spraying. They include 17 from Warora tehsil, 5 from Bhadrawati and 2 from Bramhapuri tehsil. Apart from this, 33 patients were admitted for pesticide poisoning since September at the Chandrapur Government Medical College and Hospital here. Out of these, 28 patients belong to different tehsils in Chandrapur district, while remaining 5 were from Yavatmal and Gadchiroli districts.

Nawadkar informed that he has asked the district superintendent agriculture officer to compile the data from all tehsils. District superintendent agriculture officer AK Hasnabade claimed they are collecting details of pesticide poisoning cases from every tehsil and also from Chandrapur GMCH.

Hasnabade, however, claimed that they have not received any formal complaint regarding the sale of such insecticides meant for sugar cane in the district.

The death toll remained at 35 in the region with no fresh casualty reported on Thursday. No fresh poisoning cases were reported from Nagpur, Akola and Chandrapur districts on Thursday.