Different effluents from textile industries which are dumped into the water bodies have been a major concern of the modern world. The uncontrolled discharge of the synthetic textile dyes in water bodies especially have led to serious environmental problems and health hazards. Among the different existing approaches to treat water, photocatalysis is an attractive approach as it uses the inexhaustible and clean solar energy. Considering its ability to absorb in the visible light of solar spectrum, its multiferroic property and its crystal structure, researchers feel BiFeO3 can provide a breakthrough in the treatment of water. In this article, a thorough review is presented on the various attempts done so far on degradation of different synthetic textile dyes solution using BiFeO3 nanostructures. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.