Review of pesticide usage in India, including of chemicals which have been banned
elsewhere in the world – reg.
Namaste! We congratulate the government for setting up the Anupam Verma Committee to
review the continued use in India of 66 pesticides that have been banned elsewhere in the
world, and the Anupam Verma Committee itself for giving its report that recommended a ban
on 13 of those pesticides and a phasing out by 2020 of 6 of the pesticides reviewed. We also
appreciate some of the general recommendations that the Committee came up with and hope
that the Government will immediately implement them. However, we would like to point out
that none of this really goes anywhere close to the serious and comprehensive overhaul that
the pesticides regulatory regime needs in India, for the sake of our farm livelihoods and
biosafety. We present these matters in greater detail below.