Despite the danger posed by pesticides, there is no data in India on the nearly 70,000 compounds that could cause human death. The issue was recently discussed at the meeting of the "International Congress of Medical Toxicology and Legal Medicine Experts" in Delhi. After deliberations, setting up of a National Poison Control Centre (npcc), which could provide data on poisonous compounds and related studies, was recommended. The npcc will supervise the team with active participation from the department of paediatrics, department of forsenic medicine and toxicology, and the department of pharmacology.
NPCC will be responsible for providing treatment and analytical support in poisoning cases, besides continuing its role of providing information. Meanwhile, the Union agricultural ministerof state, Som Pal, said that such a centre is the need of the hour.
india / wildlife
Sick in sanctuary
Wildlife in the Sariska Tiger Reserve is facing serious health problems. In the past two years, about a dozen tigers and leopards, which were killed in road accidents or found dead, were found to be suffering from tuberculosis (tb) or liver infection. "It is an established fact that tigers and leopards have died in the past due to tb, lung infection and liver cirrhosis," said B Charm, assistant field director of the sanctuary.
The experts are debating the original source of infection. Some believe that the infection was brought to the sanctuary by red monkeys and languors who return to the forest after making forays into the towns. Some like Sharma say diseases of domestic cattle living within and outside the sanctuary are being contracted by the wild animals because they share water
holes inside the park. "Not a single water hole in the sanctuary at present is free from infection," said Daulat Singh Saktawat, range officer of the sanctuary
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