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A Swiss civil court’s decision last fortnight to initiate an assessment of evidence regarding the use of the pesticide Polo in a lawsuit against the agrochemical giant Syngenta sends a message to Indian farmers that it is possible to challenge a huge company and hold it accountable, representatives of individuals poisoned by pesticides said.

The cases were brought in 2021 under the Swiss public liability law by the wives of two farmers in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region who died in a wave of “pesticide poisoning” in 2017 along with a survivor of the poisoning. Polo, manufactured by Syngenta, was widely used in Vidarbha in 2017.

Pesticide poisoning is said to occur when a chemical intended to control insects is ingested or breathed in by a human or absorbed through the skin.

“This indicates that the court in principle considers that Syngenta could be held liable for harm caused by its hazardous products abroad, and paved the way for victims and their families to seek justice before the Swiss court,” said the Pesticide Action Network India in a statement.

The court will treat these three cases separately because different questions regarding evidence may emerge in each of them.

A deadly cocktail of pesticides including Polo is alleged to have caused the deaths...

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