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Abstract The present work deals with the synthesis of biodegradable hydrogel of a natural polysaccharide aloe vera and vinyl monomer acrylic acid. In this synthesis, ammonium persulfate–glutaraldehyde was used as initiator-cross-linker system, acrylic acid as monomer and aloe vera as backbone. Grafting was confirmed by different techniques like SEM, FT-IR, XRD and EDS. Maximum percentage swelling of synthesized hydrogel was found to be 756%. Biodegradation behavior of synthesized hydrogel [Av-cl-poly(AA)] was studied by soil burial, composting and vermicomposting methods. Maximum biodegradation was found to be 90%, 94% and 93% in case of soil burial, composting and vermicomposting methods, respectively. Biodegradation of Av-cl-poly(AA) was confirmed by FT-IR and SEM techniques. Water retention capacity was prolonged from 11 to 20 days using synthesized Av-cl-poly(AA). Water content of clay soil and sandy loam soil was increased to an extent of 6.1% and 5.79%, respectively. Synthesized Av-cl-poly(AA) has been found to be effective in sustained release of harmful pesticide dichlorvos. The results showed that maximum release of dichlorvos was found to be 1024.34 ppm after 44 h.