State of pesticide regulations in India
The pesticides’ regulations in India are governed by two different bodies: the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
CSE's recommendations for the Pesticides Management Bill, 2008.
India regulates its pesticides under the Insecticides Act 1968. This Act, however, hasn’t been able to stop the pesticides from contaminating the environment and having a deleterious impact on health. THe Insecticides Act 1968 will be replaced by the Pesticides Management Bill 2008. A lot of hopes were pinned on the Pesticides Management Bill 2008, but the bill hasn't been able to make human and environmental health a priority. CSE has extensively worked on impacts of pesticides and their environmental and human health impacts and it is in this light that CSE makes a few recommendations.
Andhra takes the plunge
The agriculture department is finally taking note of the non pesticide management technique of farming. The Andhra Pradesh government issued an order on May 16 that the rural development and the agriculture department would work together to reduce the cost of cultivation and move towards a pesticide free cultivation across the state.
The Ban of Endosulfan and After
Two Turnabouts, A Joint Committee and Some Violations Friday the 13th wasn't bad after all. The Supreme Court on May 13, passed an ad-interim order to ban with immediate effect the manufacture, sale and use of endosulfan throughout the country, citing its harmful health effects. The court also directed the statutory authorities to seize the permits given to endosulfan manufacturers till further orders.
SLAPP'ed but will not submit
Pesticide regulations
Fact Sheet 1: Regulations
South Asian Media Workshop on Food Safety and Pesticide Contamination
New Delhi, August 4-5, 2004
Pesticide regulations
Pesticides are widely used in agriculture without paying much heed to the consequences of its unregulated and indiscriminate use . This fact has been known to our policy makers for nearly five decades. The government is atleast under law supposed to regulate its use.
Pesticides in bottled water
One often finds unsuspecting people buying bottled water or packaged drinking water thinking its safe. Well think again. As the Centre for Science and Environment laboratory report found after analysing bottled water samples from Mumbai and Delhi these products can be far more lethal than one can imagine. The samples contained a deadly cocktail of pesticide residues. What is worse most of the samples contained as many as five different pesticide residues, in levels far exceeding the standards specified as safe for drinking water.
Pesticides in soft drinks
Adopting dual standards is a practice large multi national corporations follow especially when it comes to developing countries. Soft drinks industry is a classic case of this as the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) discovered way back in 2003. A laboratory report prepared by CSE detailed some astonishing facts about the extent of pesticide contamination in soft drinks sold in India.
Joint Committee on Pesticide Residues in and Safety Standards for Soft Drinks, Fruit Juice and Other Beverages
The Chairman of the Joint Committee on pesticide residues in and safety standards for softdrinks, fruit juice and other beverages, having been authorized by the Committee to submit theReport on their behalf, present the Report of the Committee.