THE NUTRIENTS LEVEL IN MIDDLE GANGA BASIN, INDIA

Nutrient is a chemical that an organism needs to live and grow and which must be taken in from its environment. Nitrogen and Phosphorus which are the two major macro nutrients have been considered in the present work. Nutrient concentration is an important factor in identifying the quality of water sources and the likelihood of eutrophication. A nutrient monitoring network is an important source of information about the nutrient pollution status of rivers. The nutrient pressures due to anthropogenic activities are the inputs from fertilizers used in agriculture (diffuse sources) and those coming from waste water discharges (point sources). The Ganga basin accounts for a little more than one-fourth (26.3%) of the country’s total geographical area and is the biggest river basin in India, covering the entire states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar, Delhi, and parts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal. The entire stretch selected for the study can be divided in three segments namely, upper segment (≈ 294 km Gaumukh to Rishikesh), Middle Ganga ( ≈ 1082 km. Rishikesh to Varanasi) and lower Ganga (≈ 1134 km, Varanasi to Ganga Sagar ). The present work is targeted towards the segment of River Ganga between Allahabad and Patna to provide guidelines for wastewater use in agriculture which will allow the practice to be adopted with complete health and environmental security.