Pesticide residues in river Yamuna and its canals in Haryana and Delhi, India

Abstract

Yamuna, a prominent river of India covers an extensive area of 345,843 km(2) from Yamunotri glacier through six Indian states. Residues of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) namely, isomers of HCH and endosulfan, DDT and its metabolites, aldrin, dieldrin, were analysed in water of river Yamuna along its 346 km stretch passing through Haryana-Delhi-Haryana and the canals originating from it. beta-HCH, p.p'-DDT, p.p'-DDE and p.p'-DDD had maximum traceability in test samples (95-100%) followed by gamma-HCH, alpha-HCH and o.p'-DDD (60-84%) and o.p'-DDT, delta-HCH and o.p'-DDE (7-30%) while aldrin, dieldrin, alpha and beta endosulfan remained below detection limits (BDL). The concentration of SigmaHCH and SigmaDDT at different sites of the river ranged between 12.76-593.49 ng/l (with a mean of 310.25 ng/l) and 66.17-722.94 ng/l (with a mean of 387.9 ng/l), respectively. In canals the values were found between 12.38-571.98 ng/l and 109.12-1572.22 ng/l for SigmaHCH and SigmaDDT, respectively. Water of Gurgaon canal and Western Yamuna canal contained maximum and minimum concentration, respectively both of SigmaHCH and SigmaDDT residues. Sources of these pesticides and suggested measures to check pesticide pollution of this major Indian river, keeping in view its vital link with life, are discussed in this paper.

Organochlorine pesticides in soil, water and sediment along the Jinjiang River mainstream to Quanzhou Bay, southeast China

“…The concentrations of total DDTs in DP ranked in the range of 2.56-4.97 ng/L, with a mean value of 3.5670.89 ng/L (Table 2). In comparison with those reported for other rivers, concentration of DDTs in water of the Jinjiang River was at relatively low levels as the water from the Pearl River (0.52-9.53 ng/L) , and much lower than the water from the Yamuna River, India (66.17-722.94 ng/L) (Kaushik et al, 2008) and the El-Haram, Giza, Egypt (2300-61,000 ng/L) (El-Kabbanya et al, 2000).…”

Spatial and temporal variations of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in water and sediments from Honghu Lake, China

“…Previous studies carried out in the rivers or estuary environment often found that β-HCH was dominant in sediments (Kaushik et al, 2008;Said et al, 2008;Yang et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2003;Zhong et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2006). However, γ-and α-HCH also make large contributions to the levels of ΣHCHs in this study.…”

Pesticide pollution of River Ghaggar in Haryana, India

“…There is a high probability of these pesticides finding their way into Ghaggar along with runoff. Though organochlorine pesticides have already been reported in the water of Yamuna, another major river of Haryana state flowing through its eastern border (Agarwal et al 1986;Kaushik et al 2008), there are no such reports on river Ghaggar except that by the authors on physicochemical characteristics (Kaushik et al 2001) and heavy metals (Kaushik et al 2000). This study presents the first report on the magnitude of contamination of Ghaggar by banned chlorinated pesticides.…”

“…In aquatic bodies, these pesticides affect many nontarget organisms including fish and birds due to biomagnification through food chains. Occurrence of organochlorine pesticides in various Indian rivers like Krishna and Godavari (Reddy et al 1997), Hindon (Ali et al 2008), Gomti and Ganga , and Yamuna (Kaushik et al 2008) and in the Bay of Bengal (Rajendran et al 2005) has been reported. River Ghaggar, a major river of northern India, originates from the Shivalik mountain ranges of outer Himalayas (900-2,300 m) in Himachal Pradesh between River Yamuna and Satluj, enters Haryana near Kalka, and receives most of its water from rainfall.…”