Toxic litchi kills eight children in 3 weeks

At least eight children, all aged between two and six years, in different places of Dinajpur, died in three weeks in the current month due to excessive use of pesticides in litchi orchards, an investigation by Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research found.
The IEDCR findings came amid allegations of use of pesticides by farmers many times higher than the permissible limits.
Dinajpur, famous for the juicy summer fruit, produces 15 per cent of the litchis grown in the country each year. The district grew litchis on 4,100 hectares of land this year, 1,000 hectares more than the previous year, the district DAE officials said.
‘This is the season of litchi and many farmers spray excessive pesticides in litchi orchards. A large number of litchis that fall from the trees are left strewn on the ground and children, who usually pick and eat the fruit, are affected,’ IEDCR director Professor Mahmudur Rahman told New Age.
He said their investigation had found that the deaths of the eight children were linked to litchi as they were in touch with litchi orchards or resided in areas close to the orchards.
He suspected that some pesticides not meant for use in litchi orchards might have been used.
The IEDCR director said that 14 children, aged between two and 16, had died in 2012 for the same reason in Dinajpur and Thakurgaon.
The Dinajpur Medical College Hospital paediatric department head MA Wares said the eight deaths linked to litchi as confirmed by IEDCR, were among the 11 cases recorded in the department between June 2 and June 20. All the victims had been admitted to the hospital with same symptoms.
He said that the IEDCR team could not collect sample from three victims as they had died days before arrival of the investigation team in the affected areas.
Wares said that a few of them were referred to the hospital by upazila health complexes.
He said that a total of 12 children from different places of the district were admitted to the hospital’s paediatric unit with severe convulsion and shivers between June 2 and June 18.
Guardians took away a
patient after admission and all the rest 11 died between six hours and two days.
He said that all the victims belonged to poor families and their parents worked in litchi orchards or lived in nearby areas. ‘None died of eating litchi bought from the market.’
Of the 11 victims, three were from Dinajpur Sadar upazila, four from Birganj and one each from Parbatipur, Birol, Kaharol and Chirirbandar upazilas, hospital sources said.
The Dinajpur deputy commissioner Shamim Al Raji told New Age that separate probe committees had been formed in each of the upazilas from where the deaths were reported.
The committees are headed by the upazila nirbahi officers of the upazilas concerned and they have been asked to submit reports in seven days from Thursday.
Official sources in Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute said that they examined seasonal fruits and detected pesticides in 14 per cent samples of litchis that came from Dinajpur this season.
They said that the farmers should not use organophosphorus on litchis but they did it on instructions of pesticide dealers.
They said that the chemical residues remained in fruits for 10 to 12 days after application.
The farmers could spray pesticide three times in litchi orchards, which were the permissible limits, from flowering to harvest but the farmers used it almost 20 times without being aware of its effects or even flouting agricultural officials’ directives, New Age correspondent in Dinajpur said, quoting the agricultural officials and farmers.
He reported that the farmers used the pesticides on instructions from pesticide sellers who tried to maximise their sale and profit and, in most of the cases, the farmers did not know what kind of pesticide he used.
Many farmers alleged that they rarely found the agriculture department officials monitoring unnecessary use of pesticides, growth hormone and ripening agent on litchi while most of them were unaware when to harvest the litchis after applying pesticides.
The Dinajpur horticulture centre gives advice to the farmers only when the growers visit the centre for advice but they are hardly found visiting the orchards to monitor the use of pesticides.