Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals by Typha angustifolia in Hokersar Wetland of Kashmir

Remediation of heavy metals by macrophytes in wetlands is gaining importance, particularly in the wetlands and game reserves of international importance. Hokersar wetland, a Ramsar site, is a game reserve of international importance and is facing anthropogenic disturbances over the years. Keeping in view deleterious effect of heavy metals on all the facets of contaminated ecosystems need for removal of these contaminants has received lot of attention in the recent past. It is in this backdrop, heavy metal sequestration by Typha angustata, one of the common and abundant species growing in the wetland, was explored. The study was aimed to assess sequestration of heavy metals, such as Al, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn by T. angustata in the Hokersar wetland. The EF for all the investigated heavy metals was greater than one and TF of T. angustata was greater than one for Zn, Cr and Pb thereby making the species a hyper-accumulator for these elements. In conclusion, it can be stated that T. angustata, being a hyperaccumulator of Zn, Cr and Pb and accumulator for Fe, Mn, Al, Co, Cu, Ni and Cd can be exploited for heavy metal sequestration in the wetland system.

HOGLA LEAF AS A POTENTIAL BIO-ADSORBENT FOR THE TREATMENT OF REACTIVE DYES IN TEXTILE EFFLUENTS

A new bio-adsorbent to remove reactive dyes from textile effluent was investigated in the present study. The adsorbent was the leaves of locally available hogla plant (Typha angustata). Initially, sunfix yellow, a reactive dye widely used in textile effluents, was used to check the removal efficiency in terms of contact time, pH of dye solution and adsorbent dosage. Complete removal (100%) of dye was achieved at adsorbent/dye ratio of 2300:1 at pH 10 with 180 minutes contact time. The adsorbent was then applied to deep colored, raw textile wastewater samples and it was found that 2.3 g of adsorbent was able to convert 100 mL of deep colored wastewater to transparent water at pH 10. Additionally, treatment by the adsorbent resulted in significant decreases in pH, BOD, COD, TS, TDS and TSS of wastewater, while improving the DO level.