Indian environmentalist group plans Coke, Pepsi blockade

An Indian environmental group has announced that it would temporarily paralyse the supply of Coca–Cola and Pepsi products in the country after another group said it had found dangerous levels of pesticides in their drinks.

The New Delhi–based Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology said it would blockade trucks of the two drinks companies for five days starting on November 21 as part of its 'Quit India' campaign targeting the global giants.

"We will blockade the movement of their trucks to remind these corporations that it's not just the government they have to convince, but 1.2 billion Indians," Foundation Director Vandana Shiva said.

Shiva's plans were announced, August 23, a day after the Indian government said that the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the group that published the controversial report earlier this month, had failed to prove its claims.

Both companies maintain their drinks are safe. Experts said the controversy had overshadowed the real issue as pesticide usage in India was high and most farm products were contaminated.

The CSE report triggered a ban on the sale of the drinks in several Indian states at or near state–run schools, colleges and hospitals.
The southern state of Kerala declared a total ban on the drinks.

Foundation activists said they wanted Coke and Pepsi thrown out of the country entirely as their drinks were not nutritious and accused the companies of contaminating the land and depleting the groundwater around their factories in India.

"These are corporate bulls in the garden of India," said Banwari Lal Sharma, another member of the foundation's Quit India campaign. "These corporate colonialists should be thrown out of the country just like the British colonialists were."

Coca–Cola and Pepsi said they would not comment on the planned blockades.