HEAVY METAL TOLERANCE BY Vetiveria Zizanioides (L.) NASH FROM SOLID WASTE AT AMBERNATH DUMPSITE AND RELATED HEALTH EFFECTS.

Urbanization and industrialization has given rise to large quantities of solid wastes. Due to resource crunch or inefficient infrastructure, not all of this waste gets collected and transported to the dumpsites. Phytoremediation is energy efficient, aesthetically pleasing method of remediating sites with low-to-moderate levels of contamination and it reduces the mobility of heavy metals and prevents migration to the groundwater and soil of the dumpsite. The present study involves study of uptake of heavy metals by the plant Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash., and estimation of the Phytoremediation Indices of Transfer factor, Bioconcentration factor, Translocation factor and Translocation Index. Hence in the present study, an attempt has been made to analyze the uptake of metals present in the dumpsite wastes from Ambernath dumpsite (Maharashtra State), which are amended with garden (Control) soil on Vetiver. There is an increasing trend of uptake and accumulation of Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr) and Zinc (Zn), with increasing ratio of control soil to dumpsite soil (Cr>Zn> Cd). The low values of Transfer factor, Bioconcentration factor and translocation factors (<1), indicates that Vetiver is a hypoaccumulator for all selected heavy metals. The higher transfer factor values when compared to the lower translocation factor values indicates that the accumulation of metals is in the order of root>leaves.