Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research Vol. 6 1, September 2002, pp 734-742

CON FER ENCE REPORT

Second International Conference on Plants and Environmental Pollution (ICPEP-2) -A Report

Ani ! K Gauniyal and J K Johri * National Botani ca l Research Institute. Luck now 226 00 I

The second Internati ona l Conference on Plants and Envi ronn1ental Pollution (ICPEP-2) was organi zed at the

ati onal Botanical Research Institute' ( 1BRI ), Luck now (India) from February 4-9, 2002. The conf renee was jointly organized by NBRI and Intern ational Soci ety or Envi ronmental Botani sts (ISEB), t.2sides co-sponsored

by many national and internati onal organi zations. In all , over three hundred delegates, including 50 delegates from 21 foreign countries, attended the conference. The con­ference was organized to provide an international forum for discussion and deliberati ons among sc ien ti sts, re­searchers and 1GO's, interes ted in promoting and con­ducting research, educa ti on and mass awareness on en­vironment, highlighting the role of plants in environmen­tal protection , pollution indica tion . bi ore rn ediation , biodiversity conservati on and sustainable development.

The inaugural sess ion was held in the afternoon of February 4, 2002. Dr K J Ahmad, the Organizing Sec­re tary or the conference and Secre tary, Internat ional Society of Environ menta l Sc ienti sts (ISEB) presen ted the we lcome address . T he world-renowned agriculrural

scienti sts and the father of green revo lution in India, Prof MS Swam inathan , F R S, was the Chief Guest of the inaugural sess ion.

Pro!'. Swaminathan delivered a highly illuminat ­lll g lec ture on ''Biodi versity : An effecti ve safety net against environmental pollution". He said that unsustain ­able lifes ty le lead ing to unsustainable consumpti on of natural resources, commercial greed, population grow­ing in a manner th at it exceeds the supporting capacity of the ecosystem and the continuing damage to the eco­logica l foundations, essenti al for sustainable agriculture, have all resulted in humankind reaching the crossroad in relati on to its future. In these ad verse condi tions, it is

* Author for correspondence

the biod iversity that has the power to rescue the human­kind by providing suitable bioind icators to monitor their ecosys tem, bioremedi ators to clean up their spoil ed lo­ca tions, va lue added products through hioprospecting and su stainab le food , nutriti on, and hea l th ca re security through the traditiona l but time proven agrobiodiversity and medicinal plants preserved by tri ba l communiti es . He described in deta il the various steps required before init ia ting the bio logica l moni toring programme. He suggested simple, reliable and inexpens ive methods or biomonitoring should be populari zed in all schools and colleges. Commen ting abou t the bioremed iati on. DrS wami nathan said that the use of naturall y occurring microorganisms in the so il and water to actively degrade/ remove the tox ic or unwanted compou nds and transfer­ring them into harmless substances would be very effec­ti ve. A bout bioprospect i ng, he sa id th at advancement in the fi eld or biotechnology and phytochemistry, have dem­onst rat ed the need fo r nove l generic mate ri als and biomolecu lcs ror vari ed usages for crop improvement, hea lth and nutritional implemen ts, etc . Many new or­ganisms, wh ich are yet to be iclen ti fi ecl may open a new aven ue for the economic development or the local com­munity, based an biopartnershi ps, he said. Di scuss ing on biosecurity, Prof Swami nathan informed that MSSRP is involved in the rev ita li zation of conservati on trad i­ti ons or tri ba l and rural fami lies w ith an aim to improve their l ivel ihood security by link ing thei r tradi ti onal w is­dom w ith the frontier technologies. On bioterrori sm, he mentioned th at the use or pathogenic bacteria, viruses, fungi and thereby ev ident products li ke hormones in the wari ·are as des tructive materi al i s hi gh ly condemnab le. The recent use of A nthrax as a tool of terrori sm is a grim reminder that the ability to produce d signer microor­ganism can be abused. It is ev ident that unless the tech­nologica l push is matched by an ethi ca l ull the prod­ucts o f our brain may become a cu rse rather than a bless-

GAUNIYAL & JOHRI: PLANTS & ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION - A REPORT

ing. He also spoke on the threat of invasive alien weedslike, Chromolaena, Lantana, and Mikania which hadinfest extensive tracts of agricultural and forest land,displacing native flora and animals, and even humancommunities. Parthenium, yet another weed, a majorthreat to human health, now dominates vegetation in townand city wastelands-he mentioned. To manage the inva-sive alien species, he described a seven.point action planwhich include awareness, research, action to local level,action at state level, action at national level, action atregional level and action at global level.

Dr P Pushpangadan, Director, NBRI, and Presi-dent ofISEB in his welcome address introduced the ChiefGuest and paid glowing tributes to the scholarship andscientific pre-eminence of Prof. M S Swaminathan forhis outstanding contributions in the field of plant sci-ence in general and agricultural sciences in particular.He further said that since the world is developing fast tomeet the basic needs, it has created an imbalance in thenature. This imbalance along with regular weeding outthe plants resulted to huge loss to our plant biodiversitywhich function as the back bone of the environment. ProfWilliam Manning, Department of Microbiology, Univer-sity of Massachusetts, USA; Prof S V Kurupa, Depart-ment of Pathology, University of Minnesota, USA andProf J N B. Bell, Imperial College of Science, UK, alsospoke on this occasion as Guests of Honour for the inau-gural function.

In all ten sessions were held, some concurrently,to deliberate upon the entire gamut of the vast subjectunder consideration. The scientific programme of theconference included sessions on :(i) Climate Change;(ii) Environmental Pollution and Biodiversity; (iii) En-vironmental Biotechnology, Bioremediation andBioindicators; (iv) Plant Response to Environmental Pol-lution; (v) Environmental Impact Assessment; (vi) En-vironmental Education, Mass Awareness, Legislation andEconomic Impact; (vii) Improvement, Protection and Uti-lization of Plants in Relation to Environment. Besides, aworkshop and two satelIite sessions were also held onthe following important topics.: (l). Workshop onBioinformatics - Plant species diversity, Databases ofBotanical collections on Web (Herbnet) and its role inconservation of diversity; (2) Farmer's Right, Environ-ment and Legal Responsibilities; and (3) Neem for Sus-tenance of Land, Food and Environment. Poster Sessionswere also held daily and in.all 130 posters were displayedduring various sessions.

735

The first session started from February 5, 2002,in which presentations were made by the participants onthe subject 'Climate Change'. Dr D A Grantz of Depart-ment of Botany and Plant Science and Air PollutionResearch Centre, University of California, USA deliv-ered the lead lecture of this session on "Ozone altersassimilate allocation and sugar translocation in cottonand melon". He said, that ozone depletion was a matterof concern, as it resulted in ultra-violet radiation whichnegatively affects both plants and animals. He explainedplant behaviour when exposed to ozone. Since photo-synthesis and carbohydrate allocation are the most im-portant metabolisms of the plant system, irrespective ofthe host and these directly or indirectly affect its latergenerations, he said.

Another lead lecture on "Global Climate Changeand Agriculture" was delivered by Prof. S V Krupa, Pro-fessor, Department of Pathology, University of Minne-sota, USA. Prof Krupa said that air pollution respon-sible for the global climate change was posing a gravethreat to agriculture crops. He elaborated the differenteffects of the various gases on plants. He further addedthat pollution has no boundaries and 23 per cent of thetotal crop production of world is under ozone pollutionand the situation is going to be worse in the near future.He gave information about how doubling the amount ofCO will affect the production level of wheat, rice, and

2other crops. The adverse effect of green house gases andozone hole caused as a result of our use of CFC com-pounds will have a great impact on climate change andagriculture crop production. He further said that any ac-celerated change in the climate was likely to disrupt someof the current cropping system and to create a green belt,as a complementary measure for pollution abatement wasa short term cure. He, therefore, recommended system-atic scientific efforts to ascertain the impact of impend-ing global climate changes on agricultural crops acrossthe world.

Dr Elina Oksanen of Department of Ecology andEnvironmental Science, University of Kuopio, Finland,presented an invited lecture based on the findings of herresearch on responses of two clones of Betula pendulato different ozone profiles. According to her, there is alarge variation in prevailing ozone concentrations overEurope, highly depending on climatic condition.

Prof. C K Varshney, School of EnvironmentalSciences, JNU, New Delhi, India, presented a lead lec-ture on 'Environmental indicators - Yardstick for sus-

736 J SCIIND RES VOL 61 SEPTEMBER 2002

tainable development '. He pointed out that environmen­tal indicators wou ld play an important ro le in nati ona l economy. He mentioned that sustainab le deve lopmen t shou ld be free or envi ronmental degradation and a bal­

ance between the demands of econom ic development and the need for protection of the env ironment should be

attempted. To convince the adminis trators and planners, environmental indicators shou ld provide the represen ta­

ti ve picture of env ironmental conditions. These should

be si mple, easy to interpret and be national i n scope.

Dr Madhoolika Agarwal, Department or Botany,

Banaras Hindu Univers ity. Varanasi, India, presented an

accoun t or A ir pollution and Pcriurban agriculture. She

presen ted field studi es conducted on important plants, such <!S Vig na mdiato, /Jeta Ftdgaris, Tritic11111 uest i l' llllt ,

and Bmssica co111pestris. Her presentation revealed the magnitude of plant response eva! uatecl in terms or biom­

ass accumulation and indicated a mixed influence or gaseous pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide, nitrous ox­ide, and ozone that affects crop y ield negat i ve ly. Dr Maria

Sanz. of Spain gave her inv ited lecture on ozone effects

in Mediterranean region. She clescr ibecl the 'Crti cal and

horizontal distribution of ozone and correlated it w ith

its effec ts on plants.

Dr Ri ikka iem i, Depart men t of Envi ronmental

Science, Universi ty of Kuopio, Finland, presented a pa­per en titl ed "Sp/[([ngu111 M osses Sens iti ve to Sm~dl UV­B Increases- An Ou tdoor Microcosm Experiment". Th eSp/[([glltlllt moss may suffer even from a ri se in V­

B, other peat land species and the carbon dynamics may

be affected as we ll , she ex pl ained.

The first sa tell ite sess ion on '·Farmer 's Ri gh ts, Environment and Lega l Respons ibil iti es" was held after

the lunch which was cha ired by Prof Ms Josan icli a Santana Lima of AV Scte de Setcmbro, Barra. SLt lvador­Ba, Brazil and was assisted by Dr Vijay Lakshmi Goel ,

N BRI. Lucknow. The lead lecture was presented by Dr P Pushpangadan. H e st ressed the impor tance or

Biodiversi ty, IPR, Patent, CBD, PBR and exp la ined hovv CB D and WTO Regime came into force. He said that some of the deve loping countri es have real ized their potentia l of bio-resou rces issues and have now awak­ened to these issues and cha llenges po~;ecl by the GATT

and T RIPs guide lines, as sti pulated by WTO. He ex­plained, how the develop ing countries are seek ing intel­lectual property regist ration system~ that would identify

ex tend IPR to trad itional knowledge systems, particu­larly those or the indigenous commun iti es, in line with the Article VIII(J) and Article X(C ) of CBD. India has

the proud distinction of being the first in a benefit shar­ing model that implemented in lett er and sp irit, Article VIII (J) of CBD, Dr Pushpangadan informed. He talked about biodiversity act of Indi a and importan t clauses re­latin g to IPR and na ture or benefit sharing. Dr Pushpangadan stated that globa l plan t conservat ion ini­ti at iv es are very esse ntial sinc e As ia has grea t biodiversity and high level of endemism. A lmost more

th an 45,000 spec ies or plants of wh ich 17,500 are flow­

ering in nat nrc are available in India. In ventory of these

plants has already been made by Botani ca l Survey of India. However the efforts are on to conserve them. The o ld es timate states that more than I 5,000 sacred groves exis ted in India at the beginning of the 20' 11 cen tury. How­

ever the curren t es timate shows it to 3,000 in number which means that 12,000 have already di sappeared. Pres­entl y there are more than 187 botani ca l gardens in India - 130 small and 40 medium, out of these only 12 arc con­tinuing their job of conserva ti on. He further added that

fi ve or such big gardens are busy in multi -discipl inary research , working fo r the cause of conservation of plant resources. Speaking in the same sess ion, Dr H M Behl, Scienti st. N B R 1, Luck now, India i nt rocluced the audi ­ence to the ·'Protecti on or Plant Variet ics and Farmer' s

Ri ght Bill, 1999". He highlighted the necess ity fo r en­forcing the Farmer's Ri ght as the farmers arc the culti­

vators, breeders, conserva tors, and enhancers of genetic resources. Their knowledge, innovations and practices have to be protected. He emphas ized the main points of the bill , viz. protec ti on, of traditi onal knowledge. ben­efit sharing, participation or farme rs in dec ision mak­ing, ri ght to se ll , c;ave and exchange seeds, restricti ons to GMOs-destructive terminator technology. Mr irvikar Gupta, HJS, Inst itute of Judiciary Training and Research , spoke on the legal aspects of lPR . He emphasized the

different arti cles o f CB D and legal aspects. TR IPs and

IPR.

In the second sess ion on ''Environmental Pollu­t ion and Biod ivers ity", Dr M P de Si l va, Department of

Botany, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka deliv­ered a lead lecture concerning effects of some environ ­men tal factors on the distribution pattern of algae on rhe southern coast of Sri Lanka.

Dr Gi useppe C Bertoli, Musco de Historia N atu-

GAU IYAL & JOHRI: PLANTS & ENVIRO MENTAL POLLUTION - A REPORT 737

ezue la, focused his lecture on '·D iversity Reduction and Dam Construction in the Orinoco Ri ver Delta, Venezu­ela" wherein he found that clam construction has effected changes in the hydrological and sedimento logica l re ­gimes of its channel and surrounding wetlands. The dif­ferences found in the floral composition of the mead­ows are the result or the hydrodynamic differences be­tween the channel morphology. bank slope, current-ve­loc it y, and hydrology regime, he informed.

Dr Puru sho ttam Shrestha o f Department o f Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kathamandu gave h1 s in­vi ted lecture on the findings of a case study on the envi­ronmental pollution and biodiversity o f lake Phewa Tal of epal. wherein he high lighted issues, such as bin­manipulation of aquatic macrophyte spec ies, ceo-zon­ing of the lake shore line and mon itoring o f drainage discharge for sustainable biodiversity management of lake ecosystem. He also sugges ted management strat­egy for water quality prese rva ti on, biodiversity conser­\'at ion and ecosystem management of thi s lake. Dr A nil Kumar Gocl, NBR I, Lucknow described in detail abou t the conserva tion of plant diversity in India.

The presentations ot' the first sess ion o f the third­clay ofthe conference dwelt on "Environmenta l Biotech­nology, Bioremediation and Bioinclicarion" was chaired by Dr Roger M Cox. Canadian Fores t Service. Atla ~1tic

Forestry Centre. ew Brunswick, Canada. Dr M aria Sanz of Spain was the Rapporteur.

The lead lecture o f this session was delivered by Dr William J Manning of Univers ity o f Massachusetts, USA on ·'Detector Bioindicator Plant Responses give Biological Si gn ifi cance to Ambient Ozone Monitoring Data". Dr. Manning explained that detector bioi ndicators are plant species that naturall y grow in an area andre­<;poncl to ambi ent ozone on ly when condi ti ons arc ap­propriate for ozone uptake and plant injury. He also adclecl that for individual locations, it was possible to develop si mple models that usc monitored ozone concentrations and environmental vari ables for making short term pre­ci ictions of ozone injury on detector bioind icators. He further said I hat Ethlencdiurea (ED U) was known to sup­press acme :met chronic ozone injury. He concl uded his talk '.vith the remark that in any event, prediction of ozone ill jury 1'1 nalllrc plants must be ve ri f ied by grou nd proof­ing to have biolog ical sign ificance .

Dr 0 :-.,·a ldo A Fernandez of CERZOS and

Sur 8000 Bahia Blanca, Argentina, with several examples elucidated that aquat ic vegetati on is an indicator of sus­tained ability of fresh water systems and any positive or negative growth in the population represents the envi­ronmental pollution. Dr Rashmi Sanghi, Indian Institute

of Technology, Kanpur, India explained the need of cost­effective alternative technologies or sorbents for treat­ment of metal and dye-contaminated waste stream s. She informed that adsorption process offers most economi­cal and effective treatment method for the removal of colour and treatment o f text i le effluents.

Dr Moire Wadleigh of Department of Earth Sci­ence, M emorial niversi ty of New foundland, StJohn' s, Canada described the use of stable iso topes to determi ne the anthropogenic sulphur signal in two genera of epi­phytic lichens, namely 1\lectorio and Clodonia. The spa­tial distribution of sulphur isotopic compos itions of all samples suggested contributions from sea spray, local point sources and long-range transported sulphur.

Pro t. M s Josanidia Santana Lima of AV Sete de Setembro, Barra, Salvador- Ba, Brazi 1 presented her de­liberation in the post lunch session chaired by Prof DA Grantz (USA) and supported by Dr UN Rai , NBRI , Lucknow and Dr Rikka Neimi of Finland . Ms Lima stressed upon biomonitori ng and remediation of contami­nated soi ls. Her lecture was based on the study on. ·Biomonitoring of Air Pol:ution Effects Near a Copper

Smelter in Brazil Using Mango Trees and Soil Micro-biolog ical Parameters" . She stated that the plant 's respi­

rati on rate increases !'ol lowi ng pollution and thi s deve­lopment can be used as an indicator in the restoration process. The other lec tures that continued for the day were 14 in number of which seven were from the for­eign countries and rest from India.

The clay was also marked by concurrent atellite ~ es~ion on "Ncem for Sustenance of Land Food and Environment'. under the gu idance of Dr H M Behl.

Coordinator. National Neem Network o f Indi a. In the opening remark, Dr P Pushpangadan , Director. 1 BRI stat ed that Necm - An Ancient Plant, is known to purify the ai r and was traditionall y used as an disinfec tant. It has around 22~ us2s in the fields of heal th care, agricul­iure. and pesr1cides. eem cultivation is now done sci­entificall y and national gene bank of neem has been cre­ated at NBR I, he informed . The researchers discussed various aspects rebt111g to cultivation, utilization, anci processing of nee'l t anci production of value added prod-

738 J set IND RES VOL 61 SEPTEMBER 2002

Two sessions were held on the fourth-day center-ing around on the important topics of "EnvironmentalBiotechnology, Bioremediation and Bioindication" and"Plant Response to Environmental Pollution". The ses-sion on "Environmental Biotechnology, Bioremediationand Bioindication" was chaired by Prof. MasahiroInouhe, Department of Biology and Earth Science, Fac-ulty of Science, Ehime University, Ehime, Japan, assistedby Dr Ms Carole ER Pitcairn, Centre for Ecology andHydrology, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK and Dr J S LimaAV Sete de Setembro, Barra, Salvador-Ba, Brazil.

The first lead lecture was delivered by Prof. J N BBell, Imperial College of Science, Silwood Park, Ascot,Berkshire, UK on "Biomonitoring of Air Pollution withPlants". In his lecture through case studies conducted byhim and his team in the UK, he presented a detailed infor-mation of how the higher and lower plants like lichens couldbe used as biomonitors ranging from local to national scale.Such bio-tech methods of biomonitoring are both cost ef-fective and highly appropriate for the developing countries,he suggested. Prof. Andreas Klumpp from Institut FurLandschafts-und Pflanzen Okologie, UniversitatHohenheim, Stutgart, Germany presented the third leadlecture on "Biomonitoring of air pollution effects near acopper smelter in Brazil using mango trees and soil micro-biological parameters". At the polluted sites, a strong ac-cumulation of sulphur, arsenic and copper in mango leavesas well as in superficial soil was detected by him. He sug-gested for a routine biomonitoring pragramme in the areaof industrial complex of Latin America, Camacari (NE-Brazil), including chemical, biochemical and morphologi-cal parameters. Dr Rakesh Tuli of NBRI, Lucknow in hislecture on "Designer Plants for a Sustainable Environment"said that advances in biotechnology could be utilized toprovide future technologies for environmental clean up andsustainable development. He also dwelt in detail about theadvanced research work being canied out at NBRl in thedevelopment of transgenic plants using BT-technology.

The post-tea session was chaired by Dr PPushpangadan, Director, N B R I, Lucknow, India andProf. C K Varshney, Professor, J N U, New Delhi. Theywere supported by Dr L 0 Emberson (UK) and Dr R DTripathi (India). It featured six lectures.

Prof. Roger M Cox of National Resources Canada,Canadian Forest Service, Atlantic Forestry Centre,Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada gave his lectureon "The Use of Passive Samplers to Determine Canopy

Exposure to 0, NO and SO ". He described the recentadvances in th3e development of relatively inexpensivepassive sampling devices for monitoring gaseous pol-lutants and advantage of using these devices, as they arerelatively inexpensive, require no electrical power andprovide a cost-effective means to provide dense enoughsampling to determine exposure, especially to complexterrain. He also discussed the configuration and case stud-ies using passive samplers to determine forest-exposureto gaseous air pollutants.

Dr S M Mathur, College of Technology and Engi-neering, Udaipur, India discussed about "Water Hyacinth(Eichhornia crassipes) -Problems and Remedy". Hewas of the view that water hyacinth's invasion and itsrapid spread have a significant influence on availabilityof water, food security, human health and national eco-nomics. Dr U N Rai of N B R I described the biotechno-logical applications for bioremediation of fly ash usingblue green algae and tolerant Rhizobium strains whichhelped the vegetation to grow. Dr R 0 Tripathi, N B R I,Lucknow presented his paper on "Role of Phytochelatinsin Phytoremediation of Toxic Metal Ions from the pol-luted environment". He said that phytochelatins withability to accumulate high levels of heavy metals couldbe used as suitable species for phytoremediation of metalfrom polluted environment. Dr D J Godin of LucknowChristian College, Lucknow, India in his lecture stressedthe importance and applied use of algae as bio-indica-tors combined with standard physico-chemical param-eters to assess Gomti river water quality. Lecture of DrRam Jee Srivastava, Forest Research Institute, U P,Kanpur, India centered around the need of developmentof green belt for bioremediation of urban pollution. Heimplied the need for screening of pollution tolerant plantspecies suitable for the establishment of green belt aroundindustrial sector for creating aesthetic environment.

In the fifth day session four on "Plant Responseto Environmental Pollution" was chaired by Prof. J N BBell and Dr Irina V Lyanguzova of Komarov BotanicalInstitute, St-Petersburg, Russia was the Rapporteur. Inall, 12 lectures were delivered in this session. The firstinvited lecture of this session was delivered by Dr G AD Perera of University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Shedelivered a talk on the outcome of her study on the ef-fect of edaphic conditions on the invasion of Prosopisjuliflora and Opuntia dillenii, at Bundala National Parkof Sri Lanka.

GAUNIYAL & JOHRI: PLANTS & ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION - A REPORT

Dr LI de Bauer from Instituto de recursos Natu-rales, Montecillo, Edo Mexico, Mexico thereafter, pre-sented her lecture on "Air Pollution as a Component ofEnvironmental Deterioration and Its Effects on Vegeta-tion in Central Mexico". She said that about two percent of the total green house gases of the world wereemitted from Mexico itself. She gave information aboutthe natural and anthropogenic characteristics of MexicoValley. The research work carried out by her in theMexico Valley would be useful to illustrate the prob-lems involved in India as both these countries lie be-tween the same parallels on the world atlas. Dr Ms Eliza-beth Olivares, Centro de Ecologia, Instituto Venezolanode Investigaciones Cientificas, Caracas, Venezuela pre-sented her lecture on "Evaluation of lead impact in fo-liar organic compounds of Tithonia diversifolia grow-ing in natural conditions. Dr S K Datta of N B R I,Lucknow in his lecture on "Parameters for DetectingEffect of Pollutants on Plants" focused on the possiblegenotoxic effects of different environmental pollutants,like radiation, industrial effluents, pesticides, fumigantsand their effects on human beings in terms of gene mu-tations and morphological, physiological, anatomical andchromosomal aberrations. Dr Mujeebur Rahaman Khan,Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Aligarh Muslim Uni-versity, Aligarh, India in his lecture informed that coalsmoke exposure influenced the development and sever-ity of root-knot nematode disease caused by Meloidogyneincognita in plants.

Dr S B Agarwal, Allahabad Agricultural Institute,Allahabad, India delivered a lecture on "Effect of Ve-hicular Emissions on Air Quality and Plants PerformanceAlong a National Highway in India". His studies werebased at various places along national highways of In-dia between Varanasi and Naubatpur sections for moni-toring the air pollutants, such as NO , SO , 0 , SPM,and Pb at five different locations. Plant2s gro~ing in highpollution zone showed lower concentration of ascorbicacid in leaves and lower photosynthetic rate. He con-cluded that air quality along the highways has potentialnegative impact on plant performance in the area.

Dr Tushar K Das of Department of Botany,Berhampur University, Behrampur, India in his lecturepresented the results of his investigation on the effectsof industrial effluents from three major industrial unitsof southern Orissa on germination behaviour of two cul-tivated varieties (BAM 6 and T90) of rice and observedthat Chlor-Alkali Industry-Effluents drastically reduced

739

seed germination in both the varieties, specially underthe influence of higher concentrations of the effluents.He concluded that this was due to the presence of mer-cury and various chlorinated compounds in them andrevealed that with the increase in the concentration ofthe effluents there was gradual decrease in seed germi-nation.

In a almost similar lecture Dr Ms Irina VLyanguzova V Lyanguzova of Komarov Botanical In-stitute, St-Petersburg, Russia spoke on "ReproductiveAbility of Flower Plants Under Industrial Polllution",She investigated different areas situated at various dis-tances from Ni-Cu smelter complex and the most sig-nificant change observed was gradual decrease in thenumber of vegetative dwarf shrubs while approachingthe pollution source. For some species it resulted in theincreasing of coenopopulations generativity. She con-cluded that the difference in the seed productivity offlower plants were significant in some years, as werethe seed producti vity and seed crop of the somecoenopopulati ons.

Dr K R Arya of Central Drug Research Institute,Lucknow, India spoke on "Ethnobotanical Heritage andCultural Diversity of Bhotias Tribes in Uttranchal andIts Conservation". Large-scale illegal felling of trees,deforestation due to poverty and industrialization, tour-ist traffic, land slides, etc. are playing havoc with thevegetational wealth of the region and endangering theethnomedicinal folklore of these regions. There is, there-fore, and urgent need to conserve the etnobotanicalknowledge in the folklore and daily life of the tribe.Another speaker of this session Dr Mohamed A Solimanspoke on the impact of chlorine gas pollutant of a soapfactory on the cultivated crops.

The post-lunch session on "Improvement, Pro-tection and Utilization of Plants in Relation to Environ-ment" was chaired by Prof. Andreas Klumpp (Germany)and assisted by Dr Ms Melor Ismail, University of Ma-laya, Malaysia and Dr Nandita Singh, NBRI, Lucknow,India. It featured twelve lectures.

Dr Subodh Sharma of Aquatic Ecology Centre,Kathmandu University, Kathmandu, Nepal delivered alecture on "Present Status of River Bagamati inKathamandu, Nepal". He highlighted the rapid deterio-ration of water quality in the river due to unsustainableuse of water resources for human use, resulting from thecomparison between available physico-chemical and

740 J SCI IND RES VOL 61 SEPTEMBER 2002

biological data obtained during 1986 and 2001. Dr AshaKhandelwal of Birbal Shahni Institute of Palaeobotany,Lucknow, India gave a lecture on "Qualitative and Quan-titative Assessment of Aerobiopollutants". She stated thatthe air-borne pollen grains and fungal spores are thecausal organisms for many respiratory diseases. She de-scribed the results of her study carried out in Chowkarea of Lucknow city (India). In all, she described 31types of pollen grains, 34 types fungal colonies and 35types of fungal spores. She studied various pollen grains,fungal colonies and fungal spores, and found that whilepollens showed the highest dominance, the fungal colo-nies were found with the maximum intensity in themonths of January, May, September, and December.

Dr 0 N Tiwari of Council of Science and Tech-nology, Lucknow, India delivered a talk on "Effects ofgreen mannuring and application ofbiofertilizers on rice-wheat cropping system in integrated nutrient manage-ment". He focused on the increasing trend in total Nandorganic C content in the case of BGA biofertilizer appli-cation. He said that there had been an increasing responseto the application of biofertlizers as compared to theirrespective control. Dr R S Raghuvansi of G P Pant Uni-versity of agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar,Uttranchal, India presented her paper on "UncommonPlant Foods of Uttranchal Hills: A Boon to HumanHealth". She elucidated the nutritive value of 15 foodplants grown in Uttranchal hills. She also informed thatthese plants posses therapeutic properties.

The lecture of Dr Dhan Prakash of NBRI was re-lated to nutraceuticals, wherein he said that nutraceuticalswere likely to playa significant role as preventive, pro-tective and health promotive food supplements and wouldbe preferred prescriptions of tomorrow even for diseasesassociated with increasing environmental pollution. DrV P Kapoor also from NBRI discussed "Current Trendin Natural Food Colours and Its Scope". Dr AS Sodan,Department of Botanical Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev Uni-versity, Amritsar, Punjab, India delivered a lecture on"Studies on the Development of a Computer Softwarefor Inventorization and Identification of the flora ofPunjab plains (Family Asteraceae)". He described therole of computers in invetorization and identification ofspecies. A manual identification key has been preparedusing ASTKEY software. FORTAN has been used asthe programming language, he informed. Dr A K Sharmain his lecture, stressed the need on conservation of sometrees through excised root culture method. He stressed

the need of in vitro method of germplasm preservationof heterozygous trees through long-term regenerativeexcised root culture.

The lectures centering around the theme on "En-vironmental Education, Mass Awareness, Legislation andEconomic Importance" encompassed following papers.

Dr Sudershan Kumar of N B R I, Lucknow pre-sented his paper on 'Biodiversity Information Manage-ment : Reference Management Software (RMS) Basedon Client Server Architecture". He described about thesoftwares and databases developed and future planningrelated to biodiversity and policy making worldwide. Thepapers of Dr A N Sharga and Dr R K Roy both of NBRILucknow were concerned with eco-education. Dr Roypresented his paper on "Environmental Education inBotanic Garden: Challenge and Opportunities in the NewMillennium" He said that environmental pollution wasa global problem and a growing concern so there wasneed to create mass awareness by educating commonpeople about the devastating consequences of environ-mental pollution. He stressed that a consolidated ap-proach supported with technical personnel would cer-tainly be able to meet the environmental challenges inthe new millenium by utilizing the resources and oppor-tunities available in the botanic garden. Dr A N Shargapresented his paper on "Biodiversity Conservation andEco-education for Mitigating Pollution". He said thatloss of biodiversity poses one of the greatest challengesto the world community and the conservation of thebiodiversity by bringing awareness through eco-educa-tion is imperative for sustainable utilization of plantwealth resources. He also described the efforts made byNBRI in this direction.

The paper by Dr Abha Singh of College of Fam-ily Resource Management College of Home Science,NDUAT, Faizabad, India on "Environmental ConcernsRelated to Farm Women" was significant. 'Ignoranceon the part of the farm women also reflected hazardouseffect on the health of children and other family mem-bers', she says. Therefore the awareness of the farmwomen towards the use of hazardous chemicals is re-quired and also a initiative to campaign to improve thetraditional chulas used by rural women, she concluded.

Dr H M Behl of NBRI, Lucknow lectured on'Biofuels : A Paradigm Shift'. He informed that use ofbiofuels in the developing country like India would bepivotal for its economy as a large chunk of its economy

GAUNIYAL & JOHRI: PLANTS & ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION - A REPORT

goes for oil imports. He advocated the research onbiofuels as these are environmental friendly raw mate-rial source for manufacturing vegetable oils and otherindustrial chemicals.

Concluding Session

On the concluding day one lead lecture and fourinvited lectures were delivered. Dr P V Sane, EmeritusScientist (C SIR), N B R I, Lucknow, India Chaired thescientific session and was assisted by Dr A K Goel. DrHem Chand, Medical Superintendent of SGPGIMS,Lucknow lectured on "Hospital waste: An Environmen-tal Threat and Effective Management". He said that ap-proximately from 8 lakhs beds from Indian hospitalsabout 12 lakhs kg hospital waste was generated. How-ever, in fact, 15 per cent of hospital waste is hazardousand not the complete, he explained but when mixed withnon-hazardous waste, the 100 per cent wastes becomehazardous, he warned. He dwelt in detail the rationaleof hospital waste management, health hazards and riskassociated with poor hospital management, and approachfor hospital management.

Dr Lisa Dianne Emberson of Stockholm Environ-ment Institute, University of York, York, UK delivered alecture on "Establishing an Air Pollution Network toAssess Impacts to Vegetation in Asia". She said that thepredicted increase in emissions of primary pollutants inAsia may have severe consequences for the health andproductivity of forest trees and agricultural crops. Shedescribed different methods for assessing air pollutantimpacts to vegetation and recommended establishmentof a network of air pollution scientists from countriesacross Asia for the synthesis of information of air pollu-tion.

Dr Padam B Rastogi of Ministry of Environmentand Forests, Regional Office, Lucknow, India delivereda lecture on "Environment-friendly Technologies vis-a-vis Environmental Conservation". According to him,rapid industrialization and exploitation of natural re-sources to achieve the quick economic development hasincreased the pollution load alarmingly. Dr Arun Aryafrom M S University of Baroda, Vadodara, India pre-sented the results of their studies on fungal biopollutantsand said that fungi were not only biopollutants but playeda key role in biodeterioration causing damage to books,charts, botanical objects and herbarium specimens. Healso recommended the use of biofungicides, viz. Lan-

741

tana camara and Ailanthus exelsa in place of conven-tional fumigants as a safe and ecofriendly alternative.

Dr A K Gupta of School of Environmental Sci-ences, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University,Lucknow explained the importance of environmentalimpact assessment (EIA) for assessing the quality ofenvironment and the need for the comprehensive EIAfor setting up various type of Industries. He also pre-sented his work on the EIA carried out in Kymore valleyregion in Madhya Pradesh, located in proximity of ce-ment and lime kilns factories. Studies revealed severedeterioration of air quality at all the experimental sites,especially during the winter season.

Finally the plenary-cum-valedictory session washeld on February 9, 2002, in which the recommenda-tions of this International conference were finalized andpassed on unanimously for ameliorating the global en-vironment. The Chairman of the Plenary Session Dr P VSane, the first and the former President of ISEB andformer Director, NBRI thanked the participants for theirgood and fruitful interaction they shared during the con-ference. The recommendations and future actions wouldecho our experiences in one voice, he said. Dr Sane ex-pressed his gratification at the high standard of scien-tific papers presented and the discussions that followedsubsequently. He suggested for the possibility of devel-oping of the network of the society in different coun-tries for addressing the environmental problems world-wide. The others who spoke on this occasion were: Prof.J N B Bell of the UK, Prof Roger M Cox of Canada,Prof S V Krupa of the USA and Dr H M Behl of India.Dr Bell said that he was happy to note that numerouspapers were related with the environmental problems ofthe developing countries. Addressing the participants,Dr Krupa of the USA on this occasion said that to fruc-tify the recommendations, our approach should be to con-vey the message to the general masses, government andindustry in most effective manner. Awards were alsogiven to the first and second winners of the poster pre-sentations. Three of the distinguished foreign delegates,namely, Prof. S V K Krupa, Prof. JNB Bell and Prof.Roger M Cox also addressed the gathering and gave theircomments and impressions about the conference. Ear-lier, Dr K J Ahmad, the Organizing Secretary and Sec-retary, ISEB welcomed the delegates and guests to thePlenary-cum- Valedictory session and conducted its pro-ceedings. He also presented the recommendationemerged out of this five-day conference.

742 J SCI I; D RES VOL 6 1 SEPTEMB ER 2002

Recommendations

The participants of the ICPEP-2 gave several rec­ommendations which arc as follows:

• Initiate ways at the outset, to deve lop strong inter­national resea rch collaboration and information ex­change among sc ientists to address common envi­ronmental iss ues. A relevant, exemplary operative model for address ing such common env ironmental issues between severa l different coun tri es already

ex ists within the United Nations Commission of the Eu ropean Communities (U -CEC) .

• Deve lop a strong mechani sm to promote env iron ­mental educati on among young people (e .g. schools)

and environmen tal literacy among the publi c, par­ti cularly in the user sec tor, through outreach. Indi a

can give a lead, in deve loping geographi c institu­ti onal networks for disseminating the n ecled infor­

mation. initiating local sc ience fairs for young people (schoo ls), organi zing regional workshops focu sing on spec ifi c environmental issues and co l laborating with the media sec tor to attract attention o f the pub­

lic and the policy makers. Ou treach programme ini ­tiat ed by cco-cducation di v ision o f N 8 R I at

Luck now.

• Map in a sys tematic fashion the specifi c types (e .g., occurrence or criti cal levels or grouncllc ve l ozone)

and geographic magnitude of various environmen­tal problems using simple, but elegant proven meth ­ods (e.g. usc of pass ive samplers for assessing the leve l o f air pollution and use o f indicator plants for

monitoring visible adverse effects). Such an effort is prerequisite first step ri sk analysis and <tsscssment. cos t-benefit anal ys is and the deve lopment of miti ­

gati on policies.

• Develop collaborati ve research efforts, both globally and reg ionally, to define the adverse effects of pol­lution on food and crop producti vi ty and quality.

Such acti vities, in addition to the specific local ques­ti ons, must be holi stic and integrati ve within the con­

text of multiple stress factors (both non-biological and biological) identified w ithin the framework or loca l and global clim<ttc change.

• Persistent Organic Pollution (POP ) i s a major envi­

ronmental problem, both in the developing and the developed countries. Production and applicati on of

pesticides and the presence o f pest icicles res idues in crops as well as in the atmosphere i: a grave health

hazard. Organic cu lti vation is the only viable and lasting so lution to thi s problem and it should be en­cou raged and promoted at all levels . The spec ial ses­sion on necm organi zed during ICPEP-2 addre. sed thi s problem in detail. Experts present at thi s ses­

sion highlighted the signifi ::anc e o f organic cultiva­ti on and use o f biopesticidcs, b10fertili zers, etc. It is recommended that R&D efforts in the area should be strengthened and India should provide a lead in thi s direction, I S F: 8 should al so acti ve ly partici ­pate in thi s programme.

• Deve lop ways to control or prt'vcnt the presence of i nvasi vc a! ien species and promote the preservati on

of nati ve bio logical di ver:; ity. In thi s con text, the

"Farmer's Ri ght " model of Ind ia can serve as an

example. Of addi tional consideration are the issues

o f "Ethnobotany" and criti ca l importance of sustain­ing medicinal spec ies in overal l sustainabl e devel­opment of ecosys tems.

• Develop and evaluate the comparati ve success of vari ous cost-ciTcctive pollution mitigation st rateg i c~

appropriatel y suited for acceptance by the local com­

munity. Examples i ncl udc, bio- rcmediation of sa l in ·· ity (responsible for major crop losses in semi -ari el

and irri gated agriculture) and phytoremed iation of

soil s and surface waters contaminated by indu. tria l was te (responsible for the transport of tox ic chemi ­cal s in the food chain ). Transfer :-- uccessfulmethods to the use r community for implementati on.

• Organi ze th e nex t int ernational Conl"erence on " Plants and Environmental Pol iu ti n. ICPEP-J" dur­ing 2005 to exchange informati on on the progress of wvrk , based on the aforementioned recommen­

dations. Emphasis should ;Je on invited state-of-the­art rev iews by recognized ex p~rt s, focu sing on spe­cifi c themes, with in-depth discu<;s ions, fol lowed by opportuniti es for young sc ienti _ ts to showcase their research. The overa ll proceedings of the conference should be used as another mechanism to promote awareness among the publi c and the poli cy makers.