Mercury imports to India have more than doubled between 1996 and 2002 from 254 tonnes a year to 531 tonnes annually.

Imports of organo-mercury compound (pesticides, biocides etc) have jumped 1,500 times -- from 0.7 tonnes to 1,312 tonnes -- during the same period, according to the latest data released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Kolkata.

According to the data, India has now replaced the US as the biggest consumer of mercury. It consumes 50 per cent of the global production and processes 69 per cent of it. The data was presented by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment.

"We are rapidly becoming the toxic dumping ground of the world's mercury," Sunita Narain, director, CSE, said at a conference on mercury pollution in India.

Methyl mercury, a compound of mercury, is a confirmed neurotoxicant as it damages the developing brain and causes permanent damage to the central nervous system, lungs and kidneys thus posing a grave danger to unborn babies.

Globally, countries are moving out of mercury-based processes and products and global production of mercury is on a decline worldwide.

Europe has decided to phase out all its mercury-based plants. It has over 13,000-18,000 tonnes of mercury that it will dump in the market. The US has excess mercury stocks. In the last seven years, Europe has sold over 3,000 tonnes of this toxic substance to India.

"India has become the prime destination for sellers of death and disease," Chandra Bhushan, associate director, CSE, said.

"There is sufficient evidence that mercury puts human beings at risk, particularly, the weak and susceptible populations, and urgent action is needed to curtail this hazard," RC Srivastava, former deputy director, ITRC, Lucknow, and co-chair of the mercury global assessment report drafting group, said.

PTI adds: While mapping the "mercury hotspots" in the country, CSE found that coastal areas of Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin, Karwar, Karnataka and Chennai were severely polluted, contaminating the fish stock.

In most cases the contamination level in fishes exceeded the 0.5 ppm total mercury regulation. In west coast, particularly in Mumbai, it was 1.6 times higher than the permissible level.

"High levels of mercury has been detected in fishes along the coastal area both in freshwater and saline water," the CSE report, which is based on studies by the Central Pollution Control Board and state pollution control boards, said.