The increasing amount of pesticides in the food chain is called biomagnification (also written as bio-magnification).

In simple terms, biomagnification means:

  • Certain non-biodegradable chemicals (like many pesticides) do not break down easily in nature.
  • They get stored in the bodies of organisms (plants, small animals, fish, etc.).
  • As you move up the food chain (from plants → herbivores → carnivores → top predators, including humans), the concentration of these pesticides keeps increasing at each trophic level.

A classic NCERT-style definition is:

Biomagnification is the accumulation of non-biodegradable pesticides in the food chain in increasing amount at each higher trophic level.

This is why top predators – including humans – often end up with the highest levels of such toxins in their bodies, even if the original amount in water or soil was low.

Meta description (SEO-style):
The increasing amount of pesticides in the food chain is called biomagnification – a process where non-biodegradable chemicals become more concentrated at each higher trophic level, posing serious risks to wildlife and human health.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.