Abstract
Introduction: An increasing body of evidence suggests that micro organisms are far more sensitive to industrial effluents than soil animals or plants growing on the same soil. Setting up of new industries resulted in the disposal of industrial effluents causing air, water and soil pollution. Microbes play a crucial role in decontaminating polluted sites.
Materials & Methods: The present study was based on variations of bacterial populations in polluted and non polluted soils of Saptagir Camphor and Siflon Drug industries. In this direction, soil samples were collected from Saptagir Camphor industry near Garladinne, Anantapuramu, Andhra Pradesh and Siflon Drug industry near Rachanapalli, Anantapuramu, Andhra Pradesh. The bacterial populations of polluted and non polluted soil samples were enumerated by serial dilution technique. After incubation period, colonies formed on the surface of the nutrient agar medium were enumerated.
Results: The experimental results indicated that most of the physico-chemical properties, bacterial populations were significantly higher in polluted soil samples than in non polluted soils. Additionally the bacterial populations were increased with increasing the incubation period up to 30 days compared to 0 day, however, population count was decreased after 30 days of incubation.
Conclusion: The bacterial population increases s they utilizes the nutrients in the soil, as incubation period increases the depletion of nutrients occurs and hence the population decreases on prolonged incubation.