NEW DELHI: Environment activist Aruna Rodrigues has written a letter to Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav, urging him to initiate criminal proceedings against the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for the commercial release of two controversial herbicide-tolerant (HT) Basmati rice varieties without the approval of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC).Rodrigues, who has been leading a petition for a moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMO) for the past 20 years, claims that the release of these HT rice varieties is illegal under the “Rules for the Manufacture, Use/Import/Export, and Storage of Hazardous Micro-organisms/Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells, 1989.” On August 8, she also sent a legal notice to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) alleging a violation of a recent apex court judgment.In May, ICAR commercially launched two HT aromatic rice varieties – Pusa Basmati 1979 and Pusa Basmati 1985. The varieties, developed using a conventional mutation breeding process, have been promoted as non-GMO by ICAR scientists. They are designed to tolerate herbicides such as Imazethapyr, which can effectively eliminate potent weeds and reduce water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.Rodrigues and other environmentalists have urged the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, to retract the HT rice varieties, arguing that their introduction could threaten India’s organic rice export market.
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