India announces draft to ban import and manufacture 27 substances used in pesticides 
On May 18, 2020, India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare announced a draft “Banning of Insecticides Order, 2020” (S.O. 1512(E)) and conducted a 45 days comment period. The importation, manufacture, sale, transportation, distribution and use of the pesticides listed in the Schedule to this draft will be prohibited. Also the certificate of registration for the insecticides as specified at Schedule granted under the Insecticides Act, 1968 shall be deemed to be cancelled from the date of publication of this order. The cancelled certificate must be returned to the Registration Committee within a period of three months from the date of the publication. In case of failure to return it, action will be taken under the provisions of the said Act.
The list of prohibited pesticides proposed is as follows
- Acephate
- Atrazine
- Benfuracarb
- Butachlor
- Captan
- Carbendazim
- Carbofuran
- Chlorpyriphos
- 2,4-D
- Deltamethrin
- Dicofol
- Dimethoate
- Dinocap
- Diuron
- Malathion
- Mancozeb
- Methomyl
- Monocrotophos
- Oxyfluorfen
- Pendimethalin
- Quinalphos
- Sulfosulfuron
- Thiodicarb
- Thiophanat emethyl
- Thiram
- Zineb
- Ziram
The central government states their decision for each insecticide in the draft (see the decisions to “Acephate” below).
- There are reports of Endocrine Disruption concerns in public domain.
- No data submitted on resurgence for rice and cotton as per the recommendations of Dr. Anupam Varma Committee and Registration Committee.
- No reports of resurgence could be traced in public domain.
- It is banned in 32 countries. Not approved in European Union vide Legisl. 2003/219/EC Details of country (As per PAN data) China, EU, Malaysia, Oman, State of Palestine, UK
- Alternatives are available for use.
- It is an organophosphate compound, toxic to honey-bees. Therefore, import, manufacture, sale, transport, distribution and its use shall be prohibited in agriculture.
The draft “Banning of Insecticides Order, 2020” can be downloaded from the following URLs (in Hindi and English).
http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2020/219423.pdf
