Technology and Development – Punjab case study

Punjab pioneered green revolution among the other states transforming India into a food-surplus country; the state is witnessing serious consequences of intensive farming using chemicals and pesticide. A comprehensive study conducted by Institute of medical research has underlined the direct relationship between indiscriminate use of these chemicals and increased incidence of cancer in this region. Increase in the number of cancer cases has been reported in several villages including Jhariwala, Koharwala, Puckka, Bhimawali, Khara said by Kulthar singh of member of kisan sangha

Eco-feminist Dr. Vandana Shiva written extensively about the social, political and economic impacts in her book ‘Violence of Green Revolution’, she has shown how the Green Revolution's reliance on heavy use of chemical inputs and monocultures has resulted in a precarious situation of water scarcity, vulnerability to pests, and incidence of violent conflict and social marginalization.

In 2009, under a Greenpeace Research Laboratories investigation, Dr Reyes Tirado, from the University of Exeter, UK conducted the study in 50 villages in Muktsar, Bathinda and Ludhiana districts revealed chemical, radiation and biological toxicity rampant in Punjab. 20% of the sampled wells showed nitrate levels above the safety limit of 50 mg/l, established by WHO, the study connected it with high use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. With increasing poisoning of the soil, the region once hailed as the home to the Green revolution due to excessive use of chemical fertilizer, is being termed by one columnist as the "other bhopal"

Pesticides and cancer - Long term exposure to pesticides such as organochlorines and sulfallate have been correlated with higher cancer rates and organochlorines DDT, chlordane, and lindane as tumor promoters in animals. Contradictory epidemiologic studies in humans have linked phenoxy acid herbicides or contaminants in them with soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and malignant lymphoma, organochlorine insecticides with STS, with cancers of the lung and breast cancer, organophosphorus compounds with NHL and leukemia, and triazine herbicides with ovarian cancer.