In a 2009 report ,A deadly pesticide that a UN agency urged India to ban a decade ago, contaminated food that killed at least 15 people at a temple last week, police said on Tuesday.
More than 100 others were hospitalised after worshippers consumed portions of tomato rice described as ‘vegetable pulav’ blessed at Maramma temple in Chamarajnagar in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
Several crows and dogs were also found dead after eating the leftovers.
Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of monocrotophos,a toxic substance found in food and vomit samples which attacks the nervous system.
The state government has declared to provide financial assistance of 500,000 rupees to the families of each of the dead, as media reports.
The state police didn’t not rule out of any foul play and trying to find out how the food got contaminated. Police detained some people and inquiring further,as confirmed by Superintendent of Police of Chamrajnagar district, Dharmender Kumar Meena, without specifying the number of arrests.
The same pesticide took the life of 23 school children in Bihar in 2013, one of India’s most awful mass poisonings.
That was caused by cooking oil kept in a container previously used to store pesticides.
World Health Organization report says, swallowing just 120 milligrams of monocrotophos – the weight of just five grains of rice – can be deadly. United States, European Union and various other Asian nations have banned it in their soil. Its import is now banned in at least 46 countries.
But India plans to continue allowing its use in non-vegetable crops because it is effective and cheaper than alternatives, as said by a senior government official. Monocrotophos costs only about 50 rupees (70 US cents) a kilogram, while a similar patented alternative would cost as much as 20,000 rupees.
