Pesticide poisoning kills two more in Vidarbha, toll at 50

Two more deaths due to pesticide poisoning were reported from west Vidarbha region’s Yavatmal district in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 50

Two more deaths due to pesticide poisoning were reported from west Vidarbha region’s Yavatmal district in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 50.

Geeta Bandu Sonule and her daughter are distraught after her husband Bandu Sonule died on September 21. (HT File Photo)

Kishore Tiwari, chairman of government-run Maharashtra State Agriculture Mission, said two farm labourers — identified as Gaju Netam, 32, and Madhukar Bawne, 44 — died at the government medical college and hospital in Yavatmal on Saturday.

Both the labourers collapsed suddenly after spraying pesticides in the cotton fields of their respective landlords.

They were rushed to the Yavatmal hospital last week and were on life support since then.

Tiwari, who has been camping in Yavatmal after the incident, said over 50 farmers and farmland labourers had died due to pesticide poisoning since August.

“Around 1,000 farmers, most of them landless labourers, were affected by pesticide inhalation. With symptoms such as breathing problems, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, skin rashes, dizziness and headaches, around 50 farmers are still recovering at the hospital,” he said.