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Environ Monit Assess (2010) 160:6169 DOI 10.1007/s10661-008-0657-z
Pesticide pollution of River Ghaggar in Haryana, India
A. Kaushik H. R. Sharma S. Jain
J. Dawra C. P. Kaushik
Received: 16 May 2008 / Accepted: 5 November 2008 / Published online: 24 December 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract Ghaggar, one of the major rivers of northern India originating in outer Himalayas and owing through the state of Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan, is put to multiple uses. Along its course of 464 km, it receives discharge from various cities and runoff from agricultural lands. Punjab and Haryana are two predominantly agricultural states of India using substantial amounts of agrochemicals, yet there are no reports available in literature on the level of pesticides in the stretch of river Ghaggar through Punjab and Haryana. This is the rst report on pesticide pollution of the river Ghaggar in Haryana. Water samples along the 230-km stretch of the river in Haryana were analyzed for the presence of organochlorine insecticide residues. While aldrin and dieldrin were below detection limits, both hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and dichloro-
A. Kaushik H. R. Sharma S. Jain J. Dawra
C. P. Kaushik (B)
Department of Environmental Scienceand Engineering, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, 125 001, Haryana, Indiae-mail: [email protected]
Present Address:H. R. SharmaDepartment of Environmental Health, University of Gondar, P.B. No. 196, Gondar, Ethiopia
diphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) were traceable in all the water samples. High concentration of -HCH among HCH indicates old pollution source whereas predominance of p,p -DDT among DDT reects its recent use in the catchment area of the river. The concentrations of HCH and DDT in all the samples were above the permissible limits prescribed by the European Commission Directive for drinking purposes.
Keywords Organochlorine Pesticide residues
Agrochemicals Ghaggar River Haryana
Water pollution
Introduction
Pesticides reach aquatic ecosystems by direct application, spray drift, aerial spraying, atmospheric fallout, soil erosion and runoff from agricultural areas, discharge of industrial and domestic sewage, leaching, careless disposal of empty containers, and equipment washing. In aquatic bodies, these pesticides affect many nontarget organisms including sh and birds due to biomagnication through food chains. Occurrence of organochlorine pesticides in various Indian rivers like Krishna and Godavari (Reddy et al. 1997), Hindon (Ali et al. 2008), Gomti and...