Elements of Environmental Susainability and Remediation

According to study published in prestigious journal lancet in 2015, environment pollution is killing more people than smoking, hunger, natural disaster. About 9 million people die die more than Ads, Tuberculosis , Malaria combined The Environment management could cost about 84.6 trillion USD which is approximately 62 per cent of global economy . The air pollution due to paddy straw burning in fields becomes havoc for a few days in northern India raising the solid particle levels in the year beyond 55 and even more than 1000 for few days at certain locations in paddy growing areas. Heavy metals are the most important inorganic pollutant which are not degraded and progressively accumulate in theenvironment. The use of plants for rehabilitation of heavy-metal-contaminated environments is an emergingarea of interest because it provides an ecologically and environmentally sound and safe method for restorationand remediation. Although a number of plant species are capable of hyper accumulation of heavy metals, thetechnology is not applicable for remediating sites with multiple contaminants. Phytoremediation is lessdisruptive, aesthetically pleasing and more publicly acceptable compared to physical and chemical methods.The biogeochemical capacities of microorganisms seem almost limitless and they can adsorb and accumulatemetals in their cells therefore, are being used in microbial leaching and also as agents of cleaning the environment. To overcome the metal stress, numbers of mechanisms have been evolved by microorganisms of agronomic importance by which they tolerate the uptake of heavy metal ions. Such mechanisms include: the pumping of metal ions exterior to the cell, accumulation and sequestration of the metal ions inside the cell, transformation of toxic metal to less toxic forms and adsorption/desorption of metals. The best approach would be to combine the advantages of microbe-plantinteractions within the plant rhizosphere into an effective cleanup technology. The activities of plants and plant/microbial associations may offer a viable means of accomplishing the in situ remediation of contaminated soils. This paper examines the potential role of plant microbe interactions in heavy metal contaminated soils towards phyto-bioremediation.

Keywords:

Susainability , Phytoremediation , Environmental , rhizobacteria , biological