Pollution Research Paper

ASSESSMENT OF AIR QUALITY THROUGH BIOMONITORS OF SELECTED SITES OF BURDWAN AND HOOGHLY DISTRICT BY AIR POLLUTION TOLERANCE INDEX APPROACH

J.K. DATTA, P. CHOWDHURY, A. BANERJEE AND N.K. MONDAL

Abstract

Rapid industrialization has led to different facets of pollution . Vegetation can absorb particulate and other gaseous pollutants into their system , But they also have some limitation and tend to show symptoms of damages after prolonged exposure . Based on the absorbing power and tolerance limit , vegetations can be classified as Highly Tolerant, Moderately Tolerant and Sensitive . This has been incorporated by scientists into a quantitative value of Air Pollution Tolerance Index (APTI) , depending on the score of the plant physiology indicators viz., leaf extract pH, relative Water Content ,Ascorbic acid and Chlorophyll content. The vegetation monitoring in terms of its APTI acts as a Bioindicator of air pollution and can be incorporated into assessment studies. The present investigation were undertaken to assess the air quality of selected spots of Burdwan and Hoogly district. A total of four tree species were collected at four different spots of both Hoogly and Burdwan. The results were used to calculate the APTI (Air Pollution Tolerance Index) for each plant and their tolerance/sensitivity were assessed. In this study the tree species, in Hooghly district, Tectona grandis showed the highest APTI values followed by Shorea robusta, Mangifera indica. From the tree species sampled in Burdwan district highest values were found in Mangifera indica followed by Thevetia neriifolia and Terminalia arjuna. Therefore these tree species could act as the bioindicators for pollutants and could be utilized as tolerant species towards combating air pollution.