Greenpeace India's charge on pesticide use refuted

Bangalore, Mar 29 (UNI) The Agrochemicals Promotion Group today refuted Greenpeace India's charge that use of pesticides for cotton crops in Raichur district impeded growth of children.

Group Chairman R G Agarwal told reporters here that ''armchair'' environmentalists and a few NGOs like Greenpeace India were busy spreading false information without any scientific basis and affecting the growth of the Rs 6,000 crore agro chemicals industry.

His organisation had conducted a comparitive test to cross check the findings of Greenpeace about decreasing mental growth among children in villages where farmers were using pesticides for the last 25 years and found their claims to be ''false and erroneous,'' he said.

Greenpeace had said it had conducted a study in six cotton belt locations across the country and found that injudicious use of pesticides had affected various mental abilities in children.

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