Published Paper Details:

The main objective of the study was to study the impact red mud waste lechate on a crop plant and to explore the possibility of replacing the rice crop by any other suitable crop. From the present study and the results observed from the study of other researchers of our laboratory indicated that the RMWE is deadly toxic and the rice crop should be replaced with green gram crop. It was observed that lechate leaking from the red mud pond flows as a small canal and contaminates the river. The lechate contaminates the ground water of the contaminated site and neighboring crop fields. The leached chemicals of red mud pond significantly affected the crop plants at sub-lethal concentrations. The intensity of impact increased with the increase in RMWE concentration. Seed germination and seedling establishment was severely affected in RMWE exposed seedlings. The leached chemicals / RMWE significantly affected the pigment contents of the exposed seedlings and altered the pigment ratio values of the seedlings. RMWE influenced the physiological activities and biomolecular content of the exposed crop seedlings thereby reducing the productivity of the crop plant. Significant increase in residual alumina content was noted in RMWE exposed seedlings. The residual alumina content in exposed root and shoot affected the studied parameters.