Assessment of Soil Contamination in Patancheru Industrial Area, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

Toxic trace metals concentrations in soil exert a decisive impact on soil quality and its use in food production particularly in an industrial area. An attempt is made here to study toxic metals such as Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, including Ba, Co and V in representative soil samples from Patancheru industrial area near Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. It is a known polluted area and is one of the most contaminated regions where about 260 small and large-scale manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, paints, pesticides, chemicals, steel and metallic products have been functioning for over several decades. Toxic trace metal geochemical studies were carried out in fifteen representative soil samples collected from residential and agricultural area, to understand the spatial distribution and to assess the level of contamination on the basis of index of geoaccummulation, enrichment factor, contamination factor and degree of contamination. The various indices show that residential soils are contaminated with Cr, Ni and Pb (Cu to some extent). The agricultural area, although were invariably enriched in these toxic metals, showed comparatively less contamination possibly due to uptake by plants.