After three years of Bt cotton, the first genetically modified crop in India, a whole range of crops are being tested in contained fields. As the numbers grow — there are 85 trial sites already in the country (see map) — activists and apex regulators are cautioning that the regulatory mechanism needs to run deep, down to the village-level, to keep pace with new trial sites.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), whose activists torched a Bt rice trial field in Karnal last week, today alleged that seeds had been left unattended after harvesting at a Bt rice trial field in Gorakhpur and grains removed for storage in a rented room in a village. The field, the BKU claimed, was leased to Mahyco by an absentee landowner.

To rule out any possibility of contamination, the rules are clear: All materials, including seed of rice from trapper rows, should be fully accounted for. The harvested crop from border rows and leftover plant from the entire experimental plot shall be destroyed after completion of the experiment.

So far, India is yet to approve commercial use of genetically modified food crop. These crops are under multi-location field trials. Based on the data, regulators will give permission for large-scale trials before commercialisation.

After the Karnal incident, Greenpeace said it had learnt from local functionaries, including the director of agriculture in the district, that they had no knowledge about these trials.

These two incidents are not going to help the government when the Supreme Court meets later this month to hear the PIL filed by Aruna Rodrigues. The court has already stopped new trials of genetically modified crops until further orders. The government recently submitted an affidavit, asking that the ban be lifted since, it maintained, that the regulatory mechanism at the national and state level was capable to deal with the trials.

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