Largest pesticide firm fights environmental groups using cash, clout — and crude cartoons

Except that the cartoonist in this case is Rajju Shroff, the chairman of United Phosphorus, which at $350 million is the largest agro-chemical manufacturer in India supplying a bulk of pesticides used. And the magazine called Crop Care, in which the cartoons run — there are three more ridiculing Narain — is the magazine of the Crop Care Federation of India, an NGO of which Shroff himself is the chairman and sponsor.

The NGO, in fact, is little more than a front for the pesticide industry — Shroff admits that it “helps being pesticide manufacturers together” — to fight back against growing evidence that indiscriminate use of pesticides is harming agriculture and the environment.

“I love drawing cartoons and it helps to attract the reader to the written material,’’ said Shroff. And he isn’t defensive. He says he has launched another NGO, to take on individuals he brands “environmental terrorists.”

“The first (Crop Care Federation) had members who were extra cautious. Now, we will take on everybody in the court of law,’’ he told The Sunday Express. So he has just launched Center for Environment and Agrochemicals, also based in Mumbai where his company headquarters is.

Shroff’s NGOs are involved in cases against Greenpeace, Narain’s CSE and other “green NGOs” in various courts of law from the Supreme Court to the metropolitan magistrates in several parts of India.

Shroff says his NGOs “helped” Gujarat-based Chemie Organic get Rs 48 lakh in damages from Greenpeace. In September, a Vapi court ruled against Greenpeace which had alleged that Chemie Organic workers were exposed to hazardous chemicals. The court ruled that the charges were not substantiated by facts and had hurt the company’s reputation.

Today, Shroff’s new NGO sponsored a farmers’ meeting in New Delhi where Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was invited. Shroff was honoured by Pawar for “best extension work’’ in the same meeting.

“Under the guise of environmental protection, they (environmental groups) are heaping unsubstantiated charges against the industry and are blackmailing the industry,’’ said Shroff.

The corpus of Crop Care has already grown to Rs 25-30 lakh in the last couple of months, he says, since it has been registered. “Money is not a problem. The industry is willing to give more for this cause,’’ said Shroff.

He says that Excel industry, another major pesticide firm, signed a Rs 5-lakh cheque when only Rs 5,000 was asked of them to become corporate lifetime members. He claims he has written to several scientists to come on board.

The other cases that Shroff’s NGOs have filed:

• Rs 5-crore suit against Kheti Viraasat, a Punjab-based farmers’ NGO, for a study on pesticide exposure and how it could act as a trigger for disease.

• Against Maneka Gandhi for allegedly linking crime and violence in cities to pesticides.

• Delhi-based Toxics Links, for its report on pesticide poisoning in Warangal.

• Narain’s CSE on its reports that Endosulphan was affecting the health of villagers in Kasargode in Kerala.

“These are classic SLAPP cases, an acronym in the US for strategic lawsuits against public participation,” says Narain. “These are defamation cases filed by corporations against individuals and institutions, supposedly to defend their honour and business. The intention is to intimidate and silence.’’

As for the cartoons, Narain says they are in “bad taste’’ and that she would not like to comment. “The industry has tried every trick in the book to get to us including threat and intimidation.’’