Suspicious Seed Parcels From China Raises Bio-Warfare Fears, Center Cautions Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Suspicious seed packets, bearing a misleading description allegedly from China, have been received as parcels in India and various other countries over the past week, raising a bio-warfare alarm.

The National Seed Association of India (NSAI) also issued a warning stating that the impact of seed contamination could overturn the fragile biodiversity in Odisha.

Senior Indian Government officials said China has advanced scientific capabilities and can mount such an attack on India’s soil too. Given India’s land border with China, smuggling seeds into the country is easy.

Many experts noted that these seeds could be a bacteria, another virus, some kind of invasive species.

Meanwhile the Chinese foreign ministry said the labels in the packages appear “forged” and the information on them has “errors”.

Indra Shekhar Singh, Director-Policy and Outreach, NSAI said that by enacting our biodiversity laws, the government will curb the ₹300 crore illegal trade and send a clear message to all the other bio-pirates and seed terrorists, that India cannot be messed with.