Environmental Impact & Risk Assessment Division

In the coming years, the Vidarbha region is becoming the most polluted region of the country , because of significant increase in large number of coal based thermal power plants. The coal based power plants are considered as the biggest sources of air pollution which emits huge quantity of fly ash, toxic metals like Mercury, rad ioactivity, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide, a green house gas which are considered as a major contributor to global warming. It is observed that there is a major change in the temperature of Vidarbha in the month of March and April 2016, co mparing to the past history. This causes the dangerous effect on the surrounding biodiversity. This kind of change in environment, is not only affecting the higher organisms but the whole ecosystem is getting affected. The thermal power plants need a lot of water for their functioning and they get it from all around the rivers and reservoirs, which is also the only source of water for other living beings and irrigation of farms. But because of use of lot of water by TPPs, the water sources are getting dry and the situation of drought occurs. Various air pollutants also get deposited on the surrounding land. The fly ash also plays main ro le in making the soil infert ile and polluting the ground water. Theref ore, the farmers are helpless and they are committing suicide. The life of the farmers is in danger because of drought and not having water for irrigation. If the situation persists , then there will be no farm and no farmers and no food and no life. The land of Vidarb ha is now converting into graveyard. Therefore, this paper emphasise on the impacts of TPPs on the life of farmers.

The diversity of mosquitoes depends on the availability of breeding sources and abiotic factors of the environment. Mosquito larvae were found in a variety of water collections, including temporary, permanent, natural or man-made habitats. Permanent and semi-permanent water collections were the main sites for mosquito breeding. The eradication of mosquito breeding containers or breeding sites in and around living, working areas should be taken into prior consideration. Bionomics of vectors deals with the relationship between a given species and its environment. Oviposition is the most important event in the life history of mosquitoes. Study of breeding behavior of the vectors is useful for the larval control measures and help to generate a baseline data on the available mosquito breeding sources in and around Hislop college campus. A total of 44 mosquito breeding places were observed from the study area among them 6 containers were detected positive for mosquito larvae. All the observed positive sites were treated with Fenithion, Temephos or Bti.

The organisms lacking a spine but are large enough to be seen from the naked eyes are called as Macro invertebrates. A macro invertebrate generally lives in fresh water. Macro invertebrate commun ity consists of adults as well as immature stages of their community for example flies, stoneflies, aquatic worms, snails, leeches beetles, dragonflies, mayflies, and many other organisms residing in the benthos. Macro invertebrates, main ly the aquatic group are the one which, represent the biological monitoring programs. Therefore Macro invertebrate communit ies residing in an aquatic system are very large enough to describe the chronic effects of pollutants, and as well as short enough to respond to relatively acute changes in water quality. As the macro invertebrates are less motile, hence they can indicate the pollution in a part icular area and due to this the pollution or so urce of pollution can be pinpointed, as compared to more motile organis ms residing in the water bodies. For the changes in different types of water chemistry, water quality and physical habitat, the macro invertebrates shows different responses, and their response to the environmental conditions produces shifts which are measurable and predictable. The indication of pollution by macro invertebrates is classified as clean water, slightly polluted water, moderately polluted water and severely polluted water. According to the habitat of the above four types of water bodies different macro invertebrates resides to different habitats thus indicating the health of the stream. Macro invertebrates can be captured with the help of simple equip ments and following the proper protocol. During capturing of the macro invertebrates all the necessary precautions should be t aken at first so that no errors in the interpretation of the water quality can occur. As soon as the macro invertebrates are captured they are identified with the help of the identification key. The identification of macro invertebrates helps to find the pollution level of the water which is calculated by the macro invertebrate biotic index calculator.

One of the main objectives of (SDGs) is to prevent the environment and public health by
substantially reducing waste generation through prevention, reduction, and recycling by 2030.
Another issue of concern is the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials which are main drivers in
the development of drug-resistant pathogens. The green waste was segregated and consisted
of the flora of various families, extracted with three solvents, and the antibacterial activities
through the disc diffusion method were observed on three most common pathogenic strains.
Plant materials extracted with solvents manifest various degrees of antibacterial activities;
ethyl acetate extracts draw the most promising results against the selected bacterial strains.
The preliminary antimicrobial investigation concludes, given a scope of considerable research
for green waste, the phytochemicals present can probably set off as one of the potential
alternatives to the synthetic drugs and multidrug-resistant pathogens, and a way to reduce
waste generation in the environment.

The study was conducted in the summer season (April–May 2007). The fluoride concentration along with physico-chemical parameters in ground water samples was determined in various villages of Kadi tehsil at Mehsana district of Gujarat state (India), since in most of the villages it is the only source of drinking water. The fluoride concentrations in these villages varied from 0.94 to 2.81 mg/L (1.37 ± 0.56) with highest fluoride level at Visalpur (2.08 mg/L) and lowest at Adaraj (0.91 mg/L). There was found a positive correlation of pH with fluoride and a negative relationship of fluoride with bicarbonate which is generally observed in deep ground water.

The present study investigated the chemical composition of rainwater at Kabir nagar, Nari, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. The rainwater samples were collected on event basis during June–July–August-2006 and were analyzed for pH, major anions Cl, NO3, SO4) and cations (Ca, Mg, Na, K, NH4). The pH value varied from 6.0 to 7.3 (avg. 6.3 ± 0.3) indicating alkaline nature of rainwater. The pH of the rainwater was found well above the reference pH (5.6), showing alkalinity during the monsoon season. The average and standard deviation of ionic composition was found to be 98.1 ± 10.6 μeql−1. The total anions contribute 45.1% and cations 54.9%, respectively to rainwater. Neutralization factors (NF) followed a sequence of NFCa > NFMg >  $ {\text{NF}}_{{\text{NH}}_{\text{4}} } $ with factors of 1.1, 0.38 and 0.15 indicating the crustal components are responsible for neutralization of anions. The average ratio of (NO3 + Cl)/SO4 observed as 1.1 indicates that nitric and hydrochloric acid influences the acidity of rainwater. The ratio of NH4/NO3 and NH4/SO4 was observed as 0.68 and 0.34 indicate that the possible compounds which may predominate in the atmosphere are NH4NO3 and (NH4)2SO4. Ionic correlation was established to identify sources of origin. A good correlation was seen between Ca and Mg (r = 0.95); suggesting the common occurrence of these ions from crustal origin. Similarly, the acidic ions SO4 and NO3 correlated well (r = 0.60) indicating their origin from similar sources. Other relatively significant correlations were observed between Ca and SO4 (r = 0.92), Mg and SO4 (r = 0.83), Ca and NO3 (r = 0.09), Ca and Cl (r = 0.34) and Mg and Cl (r = 0.31), and Mg and NO3 (r = 0.71). The observed rainwater ratio of Cl/Na (1.1) is closer to that of seawater ratio (1.16) indicates fractionation of sea-salt and modifications by non-marine constituents as the site is 834 km away from the sea coast. The nss-Ca contribution was observed as 95.7% suggesting their crustal origin whereas nss-Mg and nss-K shows their contribution as 87.9% and 83.2% indicating influence of soil sources. The nss-SO4 contributed as 87.4% shows anthropogenic origin.

The present study deals with the assessment of industrial water of an electronic component manufacturing unit with electroplating and its subsequent effects on soil and plants receiving the effluent. The physico-chemical parameters of the effluent samples showed higher value than that of ground water. The treated effluent was within the permissible limit. Microtox test was conducted and determined the degree of toxicity of untreated, treated effluents as well as the water sample collected at effluent discharge point of receiving river (confluence point). The physico- mechanical parameters of the soil samples were not changed due to irrigation of the treated effluent, but the concentration of metals were comparatively higher than the control soil. Higher accumulation of metals was found in the plant parts in naturally growing weeds and cultivated crop plant irrigated with treated effluent. Elevated accumulation of metals in Eichhornia crassipes and Marsilea sp. growing along the effl...

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), identified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and toxins for human and animal health, have accrued in the ecosystem worldwide due to their use in a behemoth quantity as a flame retardant. Concurrently, in the last decade, an abrupt growth of the PBDE congener BDE-28, BDE-47, BDE-99, BDE-100, BDE-153, BDE-154, BDE-183 and BDE-209 has been observed in different environmental matrices of Asian countries due to their increasing population and economic growth. In the present study, the concentration of 8 predominant PBDE congeners was investigated in soil samples collected from different municipal solid waste (MSW) dumping sites from India. Also, factors affecting the dissemination of different BDE congeners in soil were evaluated. Samples were dried and sieved through a 2 mm sieve, henceforth, PBDEs were extracted using a mixture of dichloromethane-hexane (1:1 v/v), followed by purification of these extracts which was performed with a multila...