Hot spots of mercury pollution along the west coast of India Kariyanna H. ‘Chinmayee’ Opp. Govt. Well, Upparahalli Extension, Tumkur-572102, Karnataka, India Online published on 3 December, 2011. Abstract West coast of India extends from south of Trivandrum up to Kutch. Geologically, it is endowed with granite greenstone belt of Goa group followed by granulite suite-basalts of Deccan trap and rocks belonging to Jurassic period around Kutch. Innumerable industries like chloralkali, paper pulp and cement are developed all along west coast which pose great threat to the environment. The well known mercury occurrences in the west coast are Arnala, Badagara and Kitre. Mercury, cadmium and lead are nephrotoxic elements causing kidney problems. In recent years, apart from mercury, lead, cadmium and other deleterious elements uranium, thorium and rubidium are causing renal problems along coastal Canacona, Goa. High mercury around Binge bay south of Karwar and in Pololem, Margao, Ratnagiri, Mangalore beaches resulted in mass mortality of fish due to toxic metals released from various industries. The mercury content in sea water collected from vicinity of discharge point of caustic soda factory at Karwar ranges upto 2.62+20ng/L. In sediment samples, it is 1.30 ng/L and in shell fish it is 0.006+0.001ng/L. The mercury content in coastal fish is upto 470ng/L from Mumbai and 603ng/L in Thana creek. The esturine organisms in Ulhas estuary have up to 2.07ppm of mercury concentration. As per WHO standard the tolerable limit of mercury is 0.005ppm. Top Keywords Hot spots of mercury pollution, Arbaki, Nephrotoxic element, Delerious elements. Top |