Meerut, April 22: In what may be seen as a knee-jerk reaction to 50 children falling ill after eating jatropha seeds, the district administration has issued notice asking farmers to destroy the jatropha crop. The much-hyped jatropha bio-diesel tree cultivation mission of the Government came under attack last Friday when children belonging to a minority community fell ill after eating jatropha seeds at the Shahid Smarak here. That rung an alarm bell and though the project was promoted and funded by the Central Planning Commission and the state Government, notices to destroy the crop were issued immediately by the Meerut administration. Farmers who were once goaded to plant this miracle tree in the “interest of safe environment” were warned to destroy their crops in the “interest of the humanity”. The irony of the situation was that the officials who had once been employed to promote jatropha cultivation were now deployed to impose penalty on those who did not destroy the standing crop within 72 hours!

Trouble started when parents of the 50 children held a protest at the district hospital alleging that doctors had failed to handle the crisis effectively. That prompted Divisional Commissioner Devendra Chaudhry to order that jatropha trees found in public places, residential areas and near educational institutions be burnt immediately. Forest and horticulture department officials were asked to destroy the trees.

“The seeds are poisonous”, read the public warning issued by Chief Conservator of Forests (Meerut division) R P Bharti. The notice went on to say that the administration has expressed regret over the plantation of these trees. Bharti said some landowners had planted jatropha for financial gains. “But it is the duty of all citizens to give priority to human life over economic gains,” he added.

The notice led to a confusion regarding what action would be taken if a farmer did not destroy the standing crop. As per the Government’s programme, farmers can cultivate jatropha as dense crop, inter-crop or fence crop. Members of self-help groups can cultivate jatropha too, on their own land or on land belonging to Gram Panchayat or the state Government, after entering into a revenue sharing arrangement with the authorities.

“It’s not illegal to grow jatropha,” admitted Bharti. “The warning was issued in the interest of children. There have been three incidents of jatropha poisoning in Meerut. Last week, 50 children fell ill in Bijnaur district too,” he said.

Deputy Director of Horticulture Department, Arjun Prasad Tiwari, also admitted that there is no ban or legal restrictions on the plantations. “But now that the order has been issued, we would see to it that there are no jatropha trees near schools,” he said, admitting that there’s a panic among jatropha planters. Incidentally, his department was the nodal agency for promoting the cultivation in the state.