In this issue:

REVIEW ARTICLES

• Challenges of Environmental Management in Indian Coal Mining Sector
  Authors: Sribas Goswami

  Abstract : Mining adversely affects the eco-system as a whole. It is important to conduct suitable assessment studies to learn the potential adverse impact of mining on flora and fauna. To overcome from the problems one should have knowledge about the various activities of environmental concern. A degraded environment has foreclosed alternative employment opportunities especially in the forestry and agricultural sector, leading the poor people to criminal activities. This is because environmental degradation has affected especially the common property resources such as land and water on which depend the subsistence and well-being of the poor groups. The study region being the foremost coal producing region of the country also ranked high in the list of environmentally degraded areas. Vast areas in the Raniganj and Jharia coal belt in India have become derelict due to abandoned and active surface and underground mines. In the open cast mines, waste materials are usually stacked as huge dumps in the immediate surroundings. These, coupled with coal dumps, cause significant visual impact. Large areas of forest, agricultural land, and pasture land have been converted into colliery colonies or into fallow land due to rapid expansion of the coal mines. As a result, the land use pattern has been changed considerably over the last three decades. This paper aims to study the impact of coal mining on its surrounding environment.

RESEARCH ARTICLES

• Impact of Indiscriminate Disposal of Waste from Thermal Power Plant on Groundwater Resources
  Authors: Humbarde Smita V., Panaskar D. B. F, Pawar R. S.

  Abstract : Coal combustion in power plants produces large quantities of coal-related wastes, e.g. ?y ash and bottom ash and results in enhanced concentration of most radionuclide's found in waste materials leaching into soils and groundwater. The primary objective of this paper is to study hydrogeochemical parameters to see pollution transport in the area of Parli Thermal Power Plant and to understand effect of thermal power plant waste on the quality of groundwater and suitability of groundwater for domestic and irrigation purposes in the area of parli. In the present study, geochemical investigation is carried out in the basaltic terrain. Sixty groundwater samples of bore wells and dug well have been collected from Parli region in May 2013 and analysed for physico-chemical parameters (pH, EC, TDS, TH, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, HCO3-, Cl-, SO42- , Acidity). Comparison of the groundwater quality in relation to drinking water quality standards proves that most of the groundwater samples surrounding to power plant are not suitable for drinking. Some of the samples fall under high salinity and sodium hazard zone which are not suitable for irrigation purpose. Studies revealed that the high concentration of total dissolved solid, Calcium, Total Hardness, potassium and sodium are may be due to the anthropogenic or industrial activities, ash residues dump and weathering of basalt rocks.

• Water Quality Study of Ontamiri River in Owerri, Nigeria
  Authors: Okeke P. N. and Adinna E. N.

  Abstract : Water quality levels of Otamiri river was studied to seek explanations for the variations of water quality indicators in the river and also tried to evaluate the influence of urban land use activities and season on the water quality. Water sampling and laboratory analyses were carried out using standard procedures to determine the concentrations of selected parameters in the sample. The data obtained ranged from 10.3 to 161.4 µohms/cm EC, 18.6 to 882.2mg/l TDS, 42.2 to 160.1mg/l total Hardness, 4.2 to 72.6mg/l NO3-, 0.8 to 5.6 PO4, 38.1 to 189.6mg/l SO42-, and 6.6 to 28.2mg/l Cl-. Other results ranged from 2.7 to 5.1 mg/l DO, 2.3 to 18.1mg/l BOD5, <0.02 to 0.09mg/l. Pb, <0.01 to 0.03 Cd, and 8.0 to 86.0Mpn/1000ml total coliform. There was significant difference (P=0.05) between the dry season and rainy season values, with dry season having higher levels. The results further showed that the midstream area that receive wastes from urban land use activities was polluted with parameters such as EC, NO3-, PO4-, Cl-, DO, BOD, Pb, Cd and Total Coliform being higher than the permissible limit.

• Use of Chaotic and Time Series Analysis on Surface Ozone Study at the Tropical Region, Chennai, Tamilnadu
  Authors: K. Padma, R. Samuel Selvaraj, B. Milton Boaz

  Abstract : Identification of the precise nature and attributes of the time series of surface ozone data is very important and is usually the first step for control sources of precursors. In many instances, a climatic time series is generally not statistically independent but is comprised of patterns of persistence, cycles, trends or some other non-random components. This paper describes the statistical approach used to investigate the presence of chaotic behavior and ante persistence nature, trend and periodicity in surface ozone time series. In the recent past there was no permanent measurement of surface ozone data collected at this site. Hence we measured new set of data during the period from June 2011 to September 2012 here. Objective of this study is to analyze the behavior of surface zone concentration which had been observed at the urban area Chennai. The analysis is carried out for whole data series to investigate the behavior of the surface ozone pollutant in the observed period. From our result of all analysis, Hurst Exponent of air pollutant surface ozone recorded at this has anti-persistent behaviour. The maximum value of lyapunov exponent is positive (? >0) and the system is unstable, chaotic. Mann-kendall test shows the null hypothesis and no trend. From the evaluation of the power spectrum period is calculated as 98.6 days.

• Seasonal Variations in Physico-Chemical Parameters of Water Body Amghass II Province Ifrane Morocco
  Authors: Aba Mustapha, Belghyti Driss, Benabid Mohamed

  Abstract : Water quality of body water Amghass II in province Ifrane Morocco recognized for sport fishing of rainbow trout, was assessed in terms of their physicochemical parameters. The aim of this research was to study the seasonal variations of physicochemical parameters in this water bodie. Samples were collected on the monthly basis since October 2004 to September 2005, from three sites were chosen in water body. Temperature, transparency, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, nitrite and phosphate, were analyzed monthly during one year using standard methods and procedures. The ranges of these factors were found to be comparable to those reported for other.The study concludes that water body has excellent water quality, high ecological status. The body water Amghass II demonstrate good water quality and can always classify the waters from the waters first class salmonid vocation. These features offer for rainbow trout a favorable ecological environment for growth.

• Degradation of Dyes Using High Temperature Stable Anatase Nanosphere TiO2 Photocatalyst
  Authors: V. V. Jadhav, R. S. Dhabbe, S. R. Sabale, G. H. Nikam, B.V. Tamhankar

  Abstract : High temperature stable anatase phase TiO2 was prepared by using titanium(III) chloride precursor. The prepared TiO2 powder was characterized using XRD, UV, SEM and TEM for their structural, optical and morphological studies. As prepared amorphous nanospheres become crystalline and shows increase in crystallite size with increase in annealing temperature. The lattice (a/b/c) parameters are calculated from XRD diffraction patterns at different annealing temperatures and reported. Obtained anatase nanospheres was used for the photocatalytic degradation of Crystal violet, Methyl red, Thymol blue and Congo red dyes using UV irradiation. The prepared TiO2 photocatalyst shows good catalytic activity in the order of Methyl red>Thymol blue>Crystal violet>Congo red.

• Frequency Analysis of Flood Flow at Garudeshwar Station in Narmada River, Gujarat, India
  Authors: Khan Mujiburrehman

  Abstract : This paper presents a frequency distribution study on maximum monthly flood data in Narmada River at Garudeshwar station using widely used frequency distributions for periods from 1949 to 1979. The Normal, Lognormal, Log pearson type III and Gumbell extreme value type I are proposed and tested together with their single distributions to identify the optimal model for maximum monthly flood analysis. The selected model will be determined based on the minimum error produced by some criteria of goodness of-fit (GOF) tests. The results indicated that Normal distribution is better than the other distributions in modeling maximum monthly flood magnitude at Garudeshwar station in Narmada River. Hence frequency curve at Garudeshwar station is derived using Normal distribution method. However these results can vary between the flow gauge stations which are strongly influenced by their geographical, topographical and climatic factors. The following study can be used by planning and designing engineers for deciding the dimension of hydraulic structures such as bridges, dams, canals ,levees , and spillways etc. This study can be further extended into preparation of flood forecasting techniques and flood inundation maps for Narmada River.

SHORT COMMUNICATIONS

• First Report of Hersilia orvakalensis Javed et al., 2010 (Araneae, Hersiliidae) from Telangana, India
  Authors: Pravalikha, G. B., Chelmala Srinivasulu and Bhargavi Srinivasulu

  Abstract : We report the sighting record of the Orvakal two-tailed spider Hersilia orvakalensis Javed, Foord and Tampal (Araneae, Hersiliidae) from Pastapur, Medak district, Andhra Pradesh, India. This constitutes the first record of the recently described species from Telangana and extends its range 230 km northwards. Variations in characters in types and the new material are also discussed.

• Accumulation of Heavy Metals in Fish after Chronic Exposure to the Industrial Effluent
  Authors: Waghmode S. S. and D. V. Muley

  Abstract : The present study aims to assess the accumulation of heavy metals in various organs of Mystus gulio (Ham.) after chronic exposure for 30 days at 1/10 th of LC50 to industrial effluent, collected from Lote M.I.D.C., Tal. Khed, Dist. Ratanagiri, Maharashtra. The concentrations of Cu, Fe, Zn, Cd, Ni, Co and Mn were measured. The result showed that the concentration of heavy metals from different organs were ranged from Cu 0.011 to 0.22 ppm, Fe 0.055 to 1.12 ppm, Zn 0.006 to 1.47 ppm, Co 0.001 to 0.002 ppm, and that of Cd, Ni, and Mn were below detectable level. The order of concentration of metals in the organs as: Zinc - Gills > Liver > Kidney; Copper - Kidney > Liver > Gills; Cadmium - Liver > Gills > Kidney. The concentrations of heavy metals in various organs were within the acceptable limits of international standards.

• Studies on Textile Industry Waste Water Using Saw Dust as a Low Cost Adsorbent
  Authors: S. Vijayakumar, C. Arunprakash, V. Sivakumar, M. sangeetha, T. Narmatha, M. Nishanth, R. Gobinath

  Abstract : The textile wastewater contains different colors which are harmful to the environment. The removal of dyes from effluent using adsorption process provides an attractive alternative treatment, especially if the adsorbant is inexpensive and readily available. In this present research paper natural adsorbant saw dust was used for removal of color from waste effluent of textile industry. The adsorbant prepared was employed for the removal of color at the different doses. The adsorbant was found to be capable of removing color from wastewater; the color removal capacity for saw dust was approximately 70% at normal pH and temperature. From the experimental investigations, the maximum color removal from the textile industry wastewater was obtained at an optimum adsorbant dosage of 12.5g/l of wastewater, with an optimum contact time of 24 hours, at room temperature. This result was higher than the results obtained by different process parameters for various adsorbants. It is found that the transmittance was found to be 67% with an absorbance of 0.16, BOD too was reduced from 400mg/l to 300mg/l. also owing to the adsorption process several other parameter such as chloride, sulfate, iron, COD was also reduced considerably.