Chromite mining pollution, environmental impact, toxicity and phytoremediation: a review
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REVIEW
Chromite mining pollution, environmental impact, toxicity and phytoremediation: a review Pratyush Kumar Das1 · Bidyut Prava Das2 · Patitapaban Dash1 Received: 9 May 2020 / Accepted: 16 September 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Chromite mining activities are indispensable for production of goods and services. Sukinda is a major mining site of Odisha, India, polluted by chromium, which is highly toxic in its hexavalent form. The Sukinda valley is a rich source of chromites, amounting to almost 95% of Cr available in India, and is the fourth most polluted site worldwide. Immediate solutions are needed to protect the health of biotic species of this region and their surroundings. Here we review chromite mining in India, impact of chromite pollution on plants and the environment, and phytoremediation of Cr-polluted soils. Keywords Chromium · Environment · Heavy metal · Mining · Rhizosphere · Hyperaccumulator
Introduction The economic stability and advancement of a country are highly dependent on its rich mineral resources. The mining sector which involves the utilization of the minerals therefore can be assumed to play a crucial role in the economic growth of a nation (Groves et al. 2007). Mining comes under the primary sector of the Indian economy and is a bulky sector as far as employment and job creation is concerned. Mining activities although contribute 10–12% of GDP of the total industrial sector in India but are also quite infamous for pollution of the environment. In about 3100 mines (both public and private) operating in India, approximately 5,60,000 people are employed daily. The complete detail on the Indian mining sector synthesized from the reports from the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM 2000, 2004) is listed in Table 1.
* Patitapaban Dash [email protected] Pratyush Kumar Das [email protected] Bidyut Prava Das [email protected] 1
Centre for Biotechnology, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751003, India
Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751022, India
2
The vulnerability of the mine workers to various toxic pollutants present in the mining environment may lead to deleterious health impacts. Exposure of toxic heavy metals in and around the mining sites during the mining process contributes largely to pollution of the air, water, and soil. Heavy metals being persistent in the environment are not only a major concern to public health but also affect other living organisms (Abdu et al. 2017) and the food chain (Malik et al. 2019; Sevgi et al. 2009). Chromium (Cr) is an important mineral having worldwide importance and widely used in industrial processes. However, it expresses its toxicity on the environment and human health (Peng and Guo 2020). It is unique than other metals in a way that its toxicity is dependent on the available oxidation states—Cr(III) and Cr(VI), unlike other metals whose toxicities are based on their total available concentrations in the environment (Kimbrough et al. 1999).
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