Mining activities influencing the nutritional status of soil and water near a chromite mining site of Odisha, India

Abstract

Mining activities tend to pollute surface soils, water bodies, and groundwater of surrounding mining sites. These anthropogenic activities have a direct impact on the crops cultivated along with human life in and around mining areas. Mining operations produced contaminants that disrupted the physiochemical properties of water and soil. Hence analyzing the nutritional status of water and soil along with physiochemical properties is an indicator of pollution in mining areas. Odisha is the greatest producer of chromium metal, accounting for about 97% of total chromium output in India, with all of this coming from multiple chromite mines in the Sukinda block (Jajpur district). Chromite mining dust and water spills containing poisonous hexavalent chromium produce the most unfavorable conditions in water bodies and soil, rendering them unsuitable for human and plant use. The current analysis was carried out adjacent to the Sukinda block of the Jajpur district demonstrating that the examined parameters are more or less over the allowed range. The entire research explains the quality of soil and water near chromite mining areas concerning seasonal (pre‐monsoon, monsoon and post‐monsoon) and annual variation. The pH of the soil was found to be very acidic at the present research sites, which are within a radius of 3–5 km from the mining region, ranging from 4.33 to 5.24. The pH of water varied from 6.45 to 7.67 due to the mixing of chromium from the mining activity. The water bodies near the mining sites were found to be highly turbid (423–649 NTU). The test value of soil nutrients such as Nitrogen (142.89–189.12 Kg/ha.), Phosphorous (5.73–7.84 Kg/ha.), and Potassium (143.25–174.45 Kg/ha.) are comparatively very low than the normal range of soil.