India moves toward nationwide paraquat ban after expert review of health risks
India is preparing a nationwide ban on paraquat dichloride after an expert panel linked the herbicide to severe poisoning risks and major public-health concerns.
India is moving toward a nationwide ban on paraquat dichloride, one of the country’s most widely used herbicides. The Hindu BusinessLine reported that a committee of doctors and agricultural scientists unanimously recommended a complete prohibition after reviewing the chemical’s toxicity profile and its public-health impact. The proposed step could affect a large agrochemical segment involving more than 1,500 licence holders.
The push for a ban has come from both medical evidence and pressure from state governments. According to the report, Telangana and Odisha have already imposed temporary restrictions on the sale, distribution and use of paraquat and asked the central government to make the measure permanent. This marks a significant shift from the earlier federal approach, because in December 2015 the Registration Committee under India’s agriculture ministry had allowed continued use of the herbicide with safeguards such as improved packaging, warning labels and medical training to handle poisoning cases.
Paraquat remains deeply embedded in Indian weed-management practice. It is used in tea, rubber and coffee plantations, as well as in cotton, paddy, wheat, maize, potato, grape and apple cultivation. It is also used to control weeds in canals, ponds and waterways. Its low cost and quick action made it a preferred non-selective herbicide, so a ban would likely reshape weed-control strategies across field crops, horticulture and plantation agriculture while raising questions about replacement costs.
Trade and sales data in the article underline how large the market still is. Imports increased from 8,598 tonnes in 2019-20 to 20,786 tonnes in 2022-23. Domestic sales, after dropping to 74,490 tonnes in 2020-21 from 1.13 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, recovered to 1.05 lakh tonnes in 2023-24. Those figures show that despite long-running safety debates, paraquat has remained a significant input in farm operations.
A February 2026 study in The National Medical Journal of India provided one of the strongest health arguments cited in the report. The paper described paraquat as a highly toxic compound capable of causing severe illness and death through ingestion, inhalation or skin absorption, and highlighted high mortality, hepato-renal failure, progressive fibrosis of the lung and Parkinson disease. At the same time, agricultural scientists and economists cautioned that alternatives could sharply increase cultivation costs. The study cited by the article said substitute herbicides may raise expenses by a factor of 2 to 10, while non-herbicide methods could cost tens or even hundreds of times more. That leaves policymakers balancing health protection against the practical and economic consequences for farmers.