Wetlands
are the transitional zones between land and water and are
one of the most productive ecosystems in the biosphere and play a significant
role in the ecological sustainability of the region. Lakes have played a major
role in the history of Bangalore serving as an important drinking and irrigation
source. They occupy about 4.8% of
the city’s geographical area (640 sq. km) covering both urban and non-urban
areas. Increasingly, these wetlands are under stress due to pollution from both
point and non-point sources. The point sources are the municipal and industrial
discharges and the non-point sources include urban and agricultural run-off
within a lake’s watershed, and the most insidious long-range atmospheric
transport of contaminants. In order
to ensure the well-being of the environmental, there is a need to restore these
degraded ecosystems and adopt suitable conservation and management strategies.
The restoration programme would be successful only when it is cost effective and
environmentally sound, which could be achieved through bioremediation. This
paper explores the viability of using bioremediation and phytoremediation for
removal of heavy metals from the wetlands.
Address: Energy and Wetlands Research Group
Center for Ecological Sciences
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore-12
Phone: 080- 3600985 / 3092506
Fax: 91-80-3601428 / 3600085 /3600683{CES-TVR}
E-mail: cestvr@ces.iisc.ernet.in, cestvr@hamsadvani.serc.iisc.ernet.in
Top