living organisms can be used as indicators for
environmental contaminants: experts
National Tele24 News
Chandigarh
The living organisms
could be used as indicators for environmental contaminants, said Member
Secretary, Chandigarh Pollution Control Board Mr. T.C. Nautiyal. He was speaking during a three-day residential training programme on
the“BiologicalMonitoring, Analysis and Quality Assurance ” which commenced on Tuesday at Panjab University, Chandigarh. Elaborating on the topic he said, “The use of living organisms as indicators can
increase reliability and effectiveness of analytical control of environmental
contaminants. Micro-organisms, protozoa, aquatic plants and animals may serve
as biological indicators to measure the total toxicity in aquatic environment
and can play a major role in programmes like ‘Namami Gange’ and in maintenance
of local ponds and lakes such as Sukna lake.”Amonst other speakers, Dr Ravindra
Khaiwal, Additional Professor of Environmental Health, School of Public Heath,
PGIMER, spoke about the state of the environment being of great concern due to
its enormous impact on living organisms. He stressed that when designing a
monitoring programme, biological method should also be considered along with
other approaches to better understand the overall effect of contaminants on
water bodies. Dr. Suman Mor, Department of Environment Studies, Panjab
University, stated that changes in freshwater system can produce diverse
biological effects such as release of molasses in Punjab River resulted in mass
mortality of fishes and other organisms. She further added that changes like
these indicate that ecosystem and its associated organisms are under severe
stress. Hence, the water from such ecosystem could affect the human health. Prof. Prince Sharma, Department of Microbiology PU, highlighted the importance of drinking water
monitoring to avoid fecal contamination as presence of these organism indicate
water borne infection risk to human health. Dr Yogesh Rawal, Department of
Zoology, PU highlighted the role of biodiversity in water quality management. Dr
Naveen Gupta, Department of Microbiology, PU mentioned that dissolved oxygen is
important for good water quality and necessary to support aquatic life. He
mentioned that the lower levels of oxygen normally results in large fish kills
as observed in the past in Dhanas lake. Prof. R. Jindal practically
demonstrated the water quality of Sukhna with reference to planktonic
diversity. The training programme is financially supported by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB),
Delhi. Over 35 participants from
various institutes, pollution control boards and health departments
representing 11 states of India are attending the training programme.
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