Toxic Effect of Textile Mill Effluent on Cow Pea (Vigna unguiculata L.) Walp.

Environmental pollution is one of the major evils of the world and it is increasing day by day due to urbanization and industrialization. Over the last few decades huge scale convention of chemicals in an assortment of human activities has grown very fast, mostly in a country like, India which has to go for rapid industrialization in order to sustain over growing large problem of population. The industrial effluents discharged into water bodies include toxic chemicals, oils, greases, dyes, suspended, radioactive wastes and thermal pollutants from the industries. The pollutants differ in their concentrations and it depends up on raw materials used and the amount of water let in. The indiscriminate discarding of wastes let in a large number of industrial units joins the water bodies and has serious concern to aquatic and terrestrial environment (Mustafa et al., 2010). The textile industry is one of the oldest and biggest sectors in India. At present it is amongst the top foreign exchange earning industries for India. Textile industries have been placed in the category of the majority polluting industries by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Textile industries in India were initially centred on big cities like Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Tamilnadu, Bangalore and Kanpur. In Tamilnadu, almost 80 per cent of India's cotton knitwear exports happen from Tirupur. There are 6,250 units involved in various operations of the textile industry here. It has 4900 knitting and stitching units, around 736 dyeing and bleaching units, 300 printing units, 100 embroidery units and 200 units catering to compacting, raising and calendaring. The textile industry involves processing or converting raw material into finished cloth employing various operations (Jayanth sarathi 2011). Dyeing, desizing and scouring are the major sources of water pollution in textile effluent and it consume large quantities of water and produces polluting waste effluents (Jadhav et al., 2010). The industry is using more than 8000 chemicals in various processes of textile manufacture including dyeing and printing (Kant 2012). The effluent discharges are necessary in the process of industrial developments which lead to the pollution of water and soil. The water bodies and soils are becoming major sinks for industrial pollutants. These pollutants affect the ecosystems and agricultural lands. The textile mill effluent discharges from various units contain different types of pollutants like colours, solids, traces of heavy metals etc., (Karim et al.,2006). These released pollutants direct to the pollution of surface water, groundwater and the soils directly or indirectly. Textile processes requires large volumes of fresh water after the cloth processing operations. The wastewater volume varies from mill to mill. The combined wastewater volume from Indian textile mills lies in the range of 86 to 247 litres with an average 172 litre per kg of cloth produced and 16% of this is consumed in dyeing and 8% in printing. This effluent is characterized by high biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), sodium and other dissolved solids as well as micronutrients and heavy metals like viz.,chromium, copper zinc, lead or nickel (Manzoor et al.,2006) The effluent discharged by these industries not only affects the exterior and groundwater, but also dangerously affect the soil properties. The effluents of industries used for irrigation, gravely damage the seed germination and seedling growth of various crops but effects varies from crops to crops. Various researchers have carried out studies regarding the effects of Page | 51 International Journal of Environmental & Agriculture Research (IJOEAR) ISSN:[2454-1850] [Vol-2, Issue-5, May- 2016] different industrial effluents on different crop species (Kaushik et al., 2005; Garg & Kaushik 2008; Saravanamoorthy and Ranjitha kumari 2007; Patel and Pandey 2008; Kant 2012). The experiment seed of Cowpea is of major significance to the livelihoods of millions of reasonably poor people in fewer developed countries of the tropics. From production of this crop, rural families variously derive food, animal feed, and cash, together with spillover benefits to their farmlands through, for example, in situ decay of root residues, use of animal manures, and ground cover from cowpea's spreading and low growth habit. In addition, because the grain is widely traded out of the major production areas, it provides a cheap and nutritious food for relatively poor urban communities. In fresh form, the young leaves, immature pods, and peas are used as vegetables, while several snacks and main meal dishes are prepared from the grain. All the plant parts that are used for food are nutritious, providing protein, vitamins, and minerals. Cowpea grain contains, on average, 23-25% protein and 50-67% starch. Petty trading of fresh produce and processed foods provides both rural and urban opportunities for earning cash, particularly by women. So the present research work has been carried out the toxic effect of raw textile mill effluent on the growth of Cow pea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.