RECLAMATION OF IRON MINE SPOIL DUMPS USING INTEGRATED BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPROACH

摘要

India is richly endowed with fuel, metallic and non-metallic minerals. Mining and use of minerals in our country dates back to Indus valley times. The past two decades have witnessed passage of major central legislation dealing with environment, including specific legislation on control of air, water and land pollution. Natural ecosystem is drastically destroyed due to open cast mining. This threatens increasingly large area of the landscape, scarification widening circle of deforestation as a result of heaping and piling of mine spoil rejects. Mining also disturbs the original soil ecosystem system, structure, and horizontation. The microbial processes such as humification, soil aggregation and nitrogen and carbon cycles which are essential in restoring the mine spoil dump fertility and productivity are practically inoperative. Thus, the improvement in the physiochemical and microbial status of soil through organic blending, inoculation with biofertilizers, screening of suitable plant species and establishment of biogeochemical cycle in the mine dumps are therefore, essential to achieve the objective of restoration of land fertility and productivity and reclamation of spoil dumps. To ascertain these improvements, pot culture experiments were carried out for selection of amendment useful for large-scale application at field level and to determine their effects on enrichment in spoil quality and plant growth in Iron mine spoils. Results indicate that the mine spoil treated with soil, FYM as ameliorative material, inoculation with biofertilizers improved the physical, nutrient and microbiological status of mine spoil and its application on large-scale developed a lush green vegetation.