LEVELS OF TRACE METALS IN INDUSTRIALLY POLLUTED SOILS OF RANIPET INDUSTRIAL TOWN, VELLORE DISTRICT, TAMIL NADU

摘要

Besides agricultural utilization, soils also have a variety of other ecological functions. Ecological consequences of soil pollution may include disturbances in soil functionality, composition of soil microbial population, soil enzymes and soil fertility etc Heavy metals in soil represent potential risk to the environment. The main sources of these metals in the environment are of geochemical and rapid industrialization origin. Ranipet town in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu is located 115km from Chennai, on the Bangalore-Chennai Highway, where several industries are located Villages like M.G.R. Nagar, Kannikapuram, Vanapadi, Vannivedu, which are located near this industrial area and whose main occupation is agriculture, are adversely affected. Hence, a pioneering work has been conducted at four different sites near Ranipet Industrial area to estimate the levels of trace metals like Cr, Ni, Fe, Cu, Pb, Co, Zn, Cd in the soil. The levels of some metals were found to be exorbitantly high, which need immediate attention.