Pesticides in India have moved from farm tools to unregulated hazards in everyday life

When two children, aged six and one, died in their Chennai apartment after a routine pest control treatment in November 2024, it exposed a chilling reality: in India, pesticides have drifted far beyond farms and fields to become poorly regulated hazards embedded in everyday life. Their deaths were not an isolated tragedy. They are part of a wider pattern of preventable disasters that point to deep, systemic failures in how pesticides are regulated, monitored and used.

Pesticides everywhere

The scale of pesticide misuse in India extends far beyond what most people realise. These chemicals now permeate daily life in ways that are often invisible: in wall paints, incense sticks, furniture, aircraft cabins, stored grains, and even temple prasad.

Pesticidal paints, for instance, use microencapsulated insecticides designed to release chemicals gradually over periods of up to two years. This results in continuous exposure for residents, often without their knowledge or consent. Recent studies have detected pesticide residues in incense sticks commonly used in homes and temples, while a 2024 study found widespread pesticide contamination in low-income housing, including legacy chemicals such as heptachlor.

India also mandates insecticide spraying on all inbound international flights while passengers are still on board — a practice the United States abandoned in the 1970s because of health concerns. A 2012 study found that flight attendants on sprayed flights had significantly higher levels of pesticide metabolites in their urine. Yet India remains one of only six countries to require this practice, governed by legislation that is more than 70 years old.

In warehouses and storage facilities, fumigants such as aluminium phosphide are used to protect stored grain. In July 2024, two siblings in Madhya Pradesh died after inhaling toxic fumes from pesticide-treated wheat stored inside their home, underscoring the dangers when highly restricted chemicals migrate into domestic spaces.

A deadly pattern

The Chennai case fits a troubling pattern, marked by recurring features: vulnerable victims, often children; misuse of restricted pesticides; the absence of traceability; and diffuse, unclear accountability.

In 2013, twenty-three children died in Bihar after eating a school midday meal contaminated with monocrotophos that had been stored in a pesticide container. In 2018, fourteen devotees died in Chamarajanagar after pesticide was deliberately mixed into temple prasad. There have also been repeated incidents of pesticide misuse inside homes, resulting in fatalities. In 2025, four students in Mysuru fell ill after herbicide-contaminated water was supplied to their school.

These cases are unlikely to be exhaustive. Each exposed the same regulatory gaps: no effective separation between pesticide storage and food or water, unlicensed applicators operating without oversight, no system to trace pesticide use, and weak accountability mechanisms.

An export credibility crisis

India’s pesticide failures have also damaged its export credibility. Between 2021 and 2023, consignments of Indian spices from brands such as MDH and Everest were flagged in the European Union, Singapore and Hong Kong for ethylene oxide  — a Group 1 carcinogen — exceeding permissible limits. Authorities have still not established where the contamination occurred.

Similarly, the European Union has rejected Indian basmati rice consignments due to tricyclazole residues, a fungicide banned in Europe but still permitted in India. Regulatory bodies passed responsibility back and forth, with neither the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) nor the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) accepting accountability. India currently lacks any robust mechanism to trace where fumigation occurred, who applied the chemical, or under what conditions.

Why the system fails

The Insecticides Act, 1968, was never designed to govern today’s realities. It focuses primarily on agricultural use, with limited provisions for “ordinary use” in homes, hotels, construction sites and transport systems.

Critical gaps include the absence of farm-to-fork traceability, widespread use of unlicensed pest control operators, institutional silos between FSSAI and CIBRC, the lack of mandatory reporting for poisoning incidents, weak criminal liability provisions, and minimal public awareness.

Unlike adverse events following immunisation (AEFI), which are reported through a structured national surveillance system, pesticide-related incidents are not centrally tracked. Each tragedy is treated as an isolated event rather than evidence of systemic failure.

The 2025 Bill: progress, but not enough

The proposed Pesticides Management Bill, 2025, introduces several improvements, including digital databases, stricter liability provisions and greater transparency. However, it falls short on several critical fronts: comprehensive traceability, mandatory licensing of pest control operators, integration with public health surveillance systems, enforceable re-entry safety standards, harmonisation with international residue limits, and clear emergency response protocols.

What must change

To prevent further deaths, illness and environmental harm — and to restore confidence in India’s exports — the country needs urgent reforms:

• An AEPI system: Establish an “Adverse Events from Pesticide Incidents” framework, modelled on AEFI, with mandatory reporting by hospitals and police, standardised investigations, a national database and public disclosure.

• Professional licensing: Require certification for all pest control operators in non-agricultural settings, covering handling, disclosure and safety standards.

• Strict segregation rules: Prohibit the storage of pesticides near food or water. Schools, temples and community kitchens should follow specific safety protocols.

• Integrated oversight: FSSAI and CIBRC must have clearly defined, overlapping responsibilities with joint accountability. No agency should be able to claim that incidents fall outside its remit.

• Full traceability: Track pesticide use across the supply chain — who applied which chemical, where, when and in what quantity.

• Criminal liability: Clearly define criminal responsibility for negligence, deliberate misuse, illegal sales and institutional failure.

• Harmonisation: Align India’s maximum residue limits with international standards to reduce health risks and trade disputes.

Conclusion

From poisoned school meals in Bihar to contaminated temple offerings in Chamarajanagar, from Chennai apartments to Mysuru school water tanks, India has witnessed pesticide-related deaths with alarming regularity. These are not freak accidents; they are predictable outcomes of a regulatory system that treats pesticide safety as secondary.

The Pesticides Management Bill, 2025, offers a chance to reset the system. But without enforceable traceability, professional licensing, integrated oversight and clear criminal liability, India risks repeating the same mistakes — at the cost of human lives and global credibility.

The paint on our walls, the incense in our homes, the aircraft we board and the places where our children learn and worship should not expose us to invisible chemical risks. Pesticide regulation must be treated as a public health priority — before the next preventable tragedy becomes another headline.

Narasimha Reddy Donthi is an independent public policy expert. Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.