Bangalore, Feb 17 (IANS) Karnataka Thursday decided to ban use of pesticide Endosulfan following reports of its health hazard and sought the central government’s nod for the measure.
‘The cabinet decided to recommend to the central government to ban use of Endosulfan in Karnataka,’ the state’s Higher Education Minister V.S. Acharya told reporters here.
The central government’s approval was a formality and it ‘will give immediate concurrence’, he said.
Endosulfan is mostly used to check pest attacks on cashew crop in coastal Karnataka.
There have been demands that it should be banned as it had resulted in physical deformities and diseases among the people in the area where it has been used.
The lone woman minister in Karnataka, Shobha Karandlaje, who hails from coastal Karnataka, has been vocal in the demand for Endosulfan’s ban.
Kerala has already banned the pesticide’s use.
