Study on Heavy Metal Pollution in Soil Collected from Tawi River, Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine the level of pollution, by selected metals Cr, Cu, Fe, Pb and Zn in soil samples collected from bank of Tawi river where bank of the river is used as dumping site while the other part is used as farmlands. The present study estimated the concentration (in ppm) of heavy metals of Zn, Fe, Cu and Pb in soil samples collected from the non polluted (Station I) and polluted (Station II) locations of river Tawi, Jammu, India. The mean concentration of heavy metals (Zn, Fe, Cu, Pb) at Station I were 0.048±0.008 (ppm); 0.016±0.001 (ppm); 0.157±0.002 (ppm) and 0.0001±0.0001 respectively; while at Station II, these values were 0.133±0.001 (ppm); 0.022±0.002 (ppm); 0.206±0.002 (ppm) and 0.002±0.001 (ppm) respectively; the statistical difference between the stations were significantly higher (p<0.05). The order of heavy metal load obtained in water samples at both the stations was found to be Fe>Zn>Cu>Pb. Also, the mean bioaccumulation of heavy metals viz. Zn, Fe, Cu and Pb in the edible tissue of fish at Station I was found to be 0.374±0.011 (ppm), 0.105±0.02 (ppm); 0.094±0.04 (ppm) and0.001±0.0001 (ppm) respectively; on the other hand, mean bioaccumulation was 0.539±0.013 (ppm); 0.156±0.04 (ppm); 0.121±0.023 (ppm) and 0.0013±0.0001 (ppm) respectively at Station II.