Review on heavy metal pollution in major lakes of India: Remediation through plants

Abstract

The historical lakes of India are getting over burdened with the loads of pollution due to the rapid growth of small scale industries, nutrient enrichment and other anthropogenic activities. The high concentrations of metals in the water bodies, their entry into ecological food chain and the resulting health effects are of great concern to the researchers in the areas of ecology. Due to the problems associated with the conventional methods of pollutant removal, phytoremediation method is gaining more attention. The plants to be used in this technique, it must have high capacity of metal absorption, its accumulation and reduction in the time of decontamination in an ecosystem. It is an environment friendly and cost beneficial technique for the removal of toxicants from the environment. This article present over view on status of heavy metal pollution in lake and remediation through plants in Indian context may helpful to researcher not only in India but around the world also. This base line data can help governmental and non-governmental organization for the management of water pollution. Key words: Lakes, heavy metals, toxicants, phytoremediation, India.