ABSTRACT
Background: The Ganga River is a life-line, a symbol of purity and virtue for countless people of India. Nearly all the sewage, industrial effluent, runoff from chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture within the basin, and large quantities of solid waste, including thousands of animals carcasses and hundreds of human corpses are dumped in the river everyday which posed a considerable public health threat to the religious bathers and a large number of people living along the river who uses Ganges water for drinking and other household purposes. Objective: To assess the physiochemical and biological quality of river Ganges water and to study the seasonality pattern of pollution of River Ganges. Materials and Methods: Two points namely Samne ghat and Rajghat (entry and exit point of Ganga into the city) were selected as the first and the last sampling stations, beside 8 other intermediate sampling stations to assess the physiochemical and biological quality of River Ganga water. The study was conducted from April 2013 to March 2014 and this period was crudely divided into three seasons viz Winter, Summer and Rainy season for the purpose of studying seasonality pattern of pollution. Results: As the river progress through city of Varanasi, Total dissolved solids (TDS), Chloride, Conductivity, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Nitrate, Nitrite and Most Probable Number (MPN) increases, DO decreases progressively and Temperature and pH remain same. Conclusion: As far as quality of water with regard to recreational and industrial purposes are concerned, Ganges water may be considered useful but most of the parameters observed across different seasons indicates that it may not be used as potable water.
ABSTRACT
High temperature stress during grain filling period in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has pronounced effects on yield in major wheat growing agro-ecological zones. The fast chlorophyll fluorescence transients expose the damage to leaf photosynthetic activity under high temperatures. The method relies on the functioning of photosynthetic apparatus of plants under stress; however, these transients have been studied in detached leaves under controlled conditions. Still no reports are available on the potential usefulness of chlorophyll a fluorescence kinetics on intact wheat leaves for screening heat stress tolerant genotypes under field conditions. Hence, we conducted a study with the hypothesis that chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters and kinetics of plant-attached leaves under field conditions can be useful for screening of heat tolerant genotypes. The experimental population for testing the hypothesis consisted of 20 diverse wheat genotypes grown under timely and late sown environments (terminal heat stress) for two years. The results showed influence of high temperature on the expression of parameters Fo, Fv/Fo, Fv/Fm, and performance index. Analysis of the fast OJIP fluorescence transients indicated that the relative variable fluorescence between steps O and K and between steps O and J were related to high temperature stress tolerance. Five genotypes with consistent performance for better photosynthetic efficiency under thermal stress were observed. The inferences drawn from the present study supported our hypothesis that the analysis of chlorophyll a fluorescence transient parameters of plant attached leaves under field conditions can be used as a tool in the selection of wheat cultivars with better thermostability and functioning of photochemical reactions that could sustain photoassimilation and grain dry matter accumulation.
ABSTRACT
This editorial stresses on the alarming rise in chronic liver diseases and the challenges faced in future regarding its management.