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On a Sustainable Future of the Earth's Natural Resources pp 363–376Cite as

Microbial Pollution Indicators in the Cauvery River, Southern India

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Part of the book series: Springer Earth System Sciences ((SPRINGEREARTH))

Abstract

The River Cauvery is one of the largest rivers of the Indian subcontinent. It originates from the Brahmagiri range of the Western Ghats, and flows for about 800 km west to east before debauching at the Bay of Bengal. Because of its importance in the Indian culture and dense population residing at its banks, it faces several forced and unforced human activities. This river system of Tamilnadu was studied in detail for the present status of water quality. Water samples were collected from 17 different sites from the Krishnarajasager reservoir up to the estuarine regions. Microbiological analysis was performed during four seasons (2010). Measured parameters include, bacterial analysis; total viable count (TVC), total coliform count (TC), total streptococci count (TS) and six different types of pathogenic bacteria. It is inferred from the study that the total coliforms (TC) were in the magnitude of 103 ml−1 for most of the sites, - higher than the permissible limits. The pollution indices (PI) ratio were high in all the seasons and maximum was observed in urban (S6 – 12.5) areas. The monsoon season showed the presence of higher levels of bacterial pollution than other seasons.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, 620 024, India

    S. Vignesh, K. Muthukumar, M. Santhosh Gokul & R. A. James

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  1. S. Vignesh
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  2. K. Muthukumar
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  3. M. Santhosh Gokul
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  4. R. A. James
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Correspondence to R. A. James .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Geology, Periyar University, Salem, 636011, India

    Mu. Ramkumar

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Vignesh, S., Muthukumar, K., Gokul, M.S., James, R.A. (2013). Microbial Pollution Indicators in the Cauvery River, Southern India. In: Ramkumar, M. (eds) On a Sustainable Future of the Earth's Natural Resources. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32917-3_20

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