he cotton growers of Gujarat may be excused if they feel caught in the freeze frame of a surrealistic movie that has suddenly taken a sinister turn. As the events that unfolded for them the last fortnight had all the makings of a bizarre scrip, many of them who have already sent their suspect cotton for ginning feel they are in the Theatre of the Absurd.

For three seasons now, they had been urged by all and sundry to try out the costly Navbharat 151 cotton seed and it was a first year that the veracity of the company's claim on being bollworm - resistant could be checked out then the whole pack of cards came tumbling down as some new ingredients called genetically modified (GM), transgenic and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) began to get mixed with what they thought was their own crop. Now, the harvest may become too hot for them to handle.

Not quite, if the current thinking in the State Government is anything to go by. The State Agriculture Minister, Mr Purshottam Rupala, has already set the tone and tenor of action t follow by saying that a "thorough" survey would be done before the Central Government's directive to destroy the transgenic crop would be complied with.

In fact he went one step further and said there was nothing wrong with using the GM cotton seed and that the entire issue was the handiwork of a pesticide manufacturer's lobby. He found an ardent supporter in the Union Textile Minister, Mr Kashiram Rana, who after consulting the State government, ruled out the possibility of destroying the cotton grown from transgenic seeds.

Clearly, the cotton growers of the State cannot be blamed if they feel slightly confused on the official line of the State and Central Government on the controversial harvest. With a couple of pickings by November 15, The GM cotton crop of Gujarat, conservatively estimated by various State Government bodies such as the Gujarat State Co-operative Cotton Federation and the Krushi Bhavan at a minimum of 10,000 acres and valued at anything over Rs 150 crore, may suddenly become hard to find as the proverbial needle in the haystack as the 2 nd and 3 rd generation GM crop gets mixed with the traditional Shankar 6 as also a clutch of home grown hybrid varieties.

It look at epidemic of bollworm to affect Gujarat's cotton crop this season for the whistle to be blown on an open transgression of the country's genetic engineering law. The practice may still may still have continued but for a favorable monsoon that set the hopes of the cotton cultivators soaring only to be shattered by the bollworn infestation.

The State Agriculture Directorate Directorate, which had initially estimated this year's cotton crop at 45 lakh bales, has since the onset of the bollworm infestation settled for 33 lakh bales. Only marginally higher than 27 lakh bales in a drought-hit season last years - is willing to buy the argument that an MNC such as Monsant, the sole supplier of the Bt cotton seed worldover, could have been fooled by the Ahmedabad - based Navbharat Seeds Pvt Ltd for two full seasons- 1999-2000 and 2000-01.

The memorandum had pointed out that up to 10,000 packets of Navbharat 151 seedsbeing seeds being sold this season (one packet of 450 gm can cultivate 1-1.5 acres). Further, it was brought to the notice of the authorities that large tracts were used for open pollination of the GM seeds collected by farmers from the previous crop with an eye on using it as seeds for the ensuing season.

According to Mr A.M. Patel, a Director of GSSPA and an original signatures to the October 5 complaint that led to the GM cotton front, "We had suspicions the last couple Navbharat 151. This year, when as much as 70 per cent of cotton cultivation from regular hybrid seeds were hit, the Navbharat strain alone stood strong against the bollworm attak."

"Also as was pointed out in our October 5 plaint, the Central institute of Cotton Research, Coimbatore, carred out tests on 49 hybrid seeds at 35 locations, six of these in Gujarat. while all other entrants were highly damaged by bollworm, only hybrid (code 223) was found to be bollworm resistant. Navbharat seeds had made one entry (NBHH-3016) and it appears that the bollworm resistant entry morphologically resembles Navbharat - 151," Mr Patel adds.

Earlier, the Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr T.R.Baalu, had said in the Rajya Sabha on August 10 that the Genetic Engineering approval committee (GEAC) observed the data generated on large scale field trails on Bt cotton undertaken by Mahyco could not repeated this year with the ICAR directly supervising the proceeding under the Advanced Varietal Trials of the All-India Co-coordinated Cotton Improvement project.

Mahyco is conducting further field trails on about 100 hectares this season but the unsavory developments in Gujarat may further put the clock back it is feared. Dr Manju Sharma, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, apparently told the media recently that things were moving fast and a decision on Bt cotton could be excepted in march 2002. The Gujarat episode may not make things too easy for the proponents of Bt cotton as the green lobby is already up in arms citing Navbharat - like instances as reason enough for India to trade warily in the transgenic Zone.