RESEARCH ARTICLE Spatial distribution and sources of pesticidal persistent organic pollutants in the Hooghly riverine sediment Sanjenbam Nirmala Khuman 1 & Girija Bharat 2 & Paromita Chakraborty 1 Received: 1 August 2019 /Accepted: 5 November 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Given the extensive indiscriminate usage in the past and limited ongoing use, organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) have been widely reported in the Hooghly riverine environment. Hence, surface riverine sediment samples were collected along the urban and suburban transects of the Hooghly River and OCPs were quantified in gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Mean concentration of HCH, DDT, and endosulfan was 5 ng g -1 , 10 ng g -1 , and 4 ng g -1 respectively. DDT was dominant among all the OCPs and contributed nearly 40% to the total OCPs possibly due to the ongoing use of DDT for vector control programs. Diagnostic ratios suggest recent source of lindane, DDT, and endosulfan. Using OCP concentration from previously published data in surface water during the same time frame, sediment-water partitioning of OCPs was estimated. Excluding α-HCH and γ- HCH in few pockets, majority of the OCPs tend to partition more on to sediment. Comparing the sediment concentration with the sediment quality guideline values, risk on ecological integrities was indicated due to DDT and HCH contamination. Suburban sites indicated higher risk than urban sites according to the calculated sediment quality guideline quotient (SQGQ). A brief review on the approach to pesticidal POP pollution management in India revealed that older management approaches should be replaced with a unique, integrated, and holistic system. Keywords Organochlorine pesticides . Sediment–water partitioning . Hooghly riverine sediment Introduction Organic pollutants like organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are important due to their chemical characteristics and toxic im- pacts on human and environment. OCPs like dichlorodiphe- nyltrichloroethane (DDT), aldrin, heptachlor, and hexachloro- benzene (HCB) are classified under the legacy persistent or- ganic pollutants (POPs). POPs are chemicals of global con- cern due to their characteristics like long-range transport, per- sistence, bioaccumulation, and biomagnifications in the environment, as well as their adverse impact on human health and the environment (Jones and De Voogt 1999). OCPs are known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors (Jayaraj et al. 2016). OCPs are important in Indian context due to its exten- sive production and usage. India has been identified as a hotspot for contamination of OCPs like dichlorodiphenyltri- chloroethane (DDT) and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and there is no evidence of decline in OCP residue in environment in recent years (Sharma et al. 2014). The lower stretch of Ganga River also known as the Hooghly River (HR) adds up to 4% of the Ganga River ’ s annual sediment release (Mukhopadhyay et al. 2006). During the monsoon, a sediment-laden stream of the river interacts with the salinity and tidal flow in the Hooghly estuary and reaches the Bay of Bengal (Das 2015b). Tropical climate enhances atmospheric dissipation of OCPs in this region (Chakraborty et al. 2010). Due to ex- tensive usage of OCPs in the past, soil is acting as second- ary source through re-emission from soil (Chakraborty et al. 2015). Past and ongoing sources of OCPs in the surface water of HR seem to be evident (Chakraborty et al. 2016). Evidence of atmospheric deposition and direct Responsible editor: Hongwen Sun Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06973-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Paromita Chakraborty paromita.c@res.srmuniv.ac.in 1 Department of Civil Engineering, SRM Research Institute, SRM Institute of Science of Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu, India 2 Mu Gamma Consultants Pvt. Ltd, Gurgaon, India Environmental Science and Pollution Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06973-3