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VOL. 11, ISSUE 2 (2026)
Diclofenac and veterinary NSAIDs in river sediments and benthic macroinvertebrate communities of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, India: Contamination profiles, ecological risks, and conservation implications
Authors
Suresh Kumar Patel
Abstract
Few ecological disasters in recent South Asian
history are as stark a warning as the near-collapse of Gyps vulture populations
caused by a single veterinary drug. That drug — diclofenac — is now banned for
livestock use in India, yet it persists in the country's rivers at
concentrations that exceed safety thresholds for aquatic life. This review asks
a question that has so far gone unaddressed: what are the consequences for the
benthic invertebrate communities of the Western Ghats, one of the world's most
celebrated freshwater biodiversity hotspots? The Western Ghats, a UNESCO World
Heritage landscape running the length of peninsular India's western flank,
feeds major river systems harbouring hundreds of endemic fish and invertebrate
species. Its rivers are increasingly loaded with non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), antibiotics, and other pharmaceuticals from
hospital effluents, domestic sewage, and pharmaceutical manufacturing discharge
— yet the sediment compartment, where benthic organisms live and feed, has been
almost entirely overlooked in monitoring campaigns. Drawing on Indian and
international pharmaceutical ecotoxicology literature, this paper synthesises
what is known about NSAID occurrence in Indian freshwaters, considers the
ecotoxicological evidence for harm to bottom-dwelling invertebrates, and lays
out why existing knowledge is grossly insufficient for managing the risk.
Diclofenac and co-occurring NSAIDs exceed predicted no-effect concentrations in
multiple Indian river systems, but biota-sediment accumulation factors for any
native tropical invertebrate taxon have yet to be reported. We argue that this
gap is not a technical footnote — it represents a substantive failure of
environmental protection for a biologically irreplaceable river network, and we
outline a four-phase research agenda to begin addressing it.
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Pages:119-125
How to cite this article:
Suresh Kumar Patel "Diclofenac and veterinary NSAIDs in river sediments and benthic macroinvertebrate communities of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, India: Contamination profiles, ecological risks, and conservation implications". International Journal of Zoology Studies, Vol 11, Issue 2, 2026, Pages 119-125
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