Table 1. Comparisonof present study results of the water compartment of river Ganga with othernational and international researchers. S.
no. Pesticide name Present study result of water compartment of river Ganga (ng/l) National researchers Results (ng/l) International Researchers Results (ng/l) 1 ?BHC 41.3-64.1 22-1119 (Agnihotri etal.1993), 110-99520 (Nayak etal. 1995) 0-290 (Shankara ramakrishnan etal.
2005) River Ganges. 0.15-20.60 (Fernandez etal.
1999) River Egro and Yangtse. 4.2-5.5 (Sun etal.
2006) Great lakes, North America 0.39-16.39 (Hamed 2005) Suez cannal 2 ?DDT 0.55-29.76 BDL-232 (Agnihotri etal.1993), 70-143230 (Nayak etal.
1995) BDL-20600 (Raghuvanshi etal. 2014) River Ganges 0.36-1.61 (Fernandez etal. 1999), River Egro 1.9-2.3 (Sun etal. 2006) Great lakes, North America 3 Aldrin 0.
55-29.76 BDL-99 (Agnihotri etal.1993) River Ganges 4 ?-Endosulphan BDL-0.917 BDL-177 (Agnihotri etal.1993), River Ganges Theresults of the present study are comparable with values reported earlier fromIndia as well as from other countries. Present study showed that the BHC, DDT,Aldrin and Endosulphan residues in water samples of river Ganga collected fromChandighat, Balawali, Shukratal and Barrage (Bijnor) are lower as compared toriver Ganga at, Farrukahabad , Varanasi, Kanpur and Allahabad reported byAgnihotri et al.
(1993), Nayak et.al. (1995) Shankararamakrishnan et al. (2005) and (Raghuvanshi etal. 2014) Theconcentration of BHC and DDT found in water samples of river Ganga are higheras compared to river Yangtse in Nanjing China and river Ebro in Spain reportedby Fernandez et al. (1999) and Sun et al. (2002) respectively.
Same trendwas observed in the surface water of Ei Tensah, Bitter lakes and Suez Canalpresent in Egypt reported by Hamed (2005). Table 2. Comparisonof present study result of sediment compartment of river Ganga with othernational and international researchers. S. no.
Pesticide name Present study result of sediment compartment of river Ganga (?g/g) National researchers Results (?g/g) International Researchers Results (?g/g) 1 ?BHC 0.174-0.273 0.010-0.047 (Dua etal.
1996) 0.0008-0.0078 (Sarkar etal. 1997) Arabian sea. 0.
0001-0.0004 (Guzzela etal. 2005) Hugli estuary West Bengal.
0.003-0.016 (Pandit etal. 2006) 2 ?DDT 0.148-0.188 0.
039-0.403 (Dua etal. 1996) 0.001-0.017 (Sarkar etal. 1997) Arabian sea. 0.142-2.
20 (Dua etal. 1999) 0.0001-0.0019 (Guzzela etal. 2005) Hugli estuary West Bengal. 0.
007-0.080 (Nhan etal. 2001) Freshwater cannal of Hanoi region. 0.008-0.034 (Sapozhnikova etal. 2005) River Dniester 3 Aldrin 0.
024- 0.043 0.00009-0.00026 (Sarkar etal. 1997) Arabian sea Presentstudy showed that the BHC, DDT, Aldrin residues in sediment samples of riverGanga collected from Chandighat, Balawali, Shukratal and Barrage (Bijnor) arehigher as compared to reported in other water bodies from different part ofIndia. Theresults of present study are also compared to the studies carried out in otherparts of the world. Nhan et al.(2001) have observed total DDT in sediments ranging from 0.
007 to 0.080 µg/gand also noticed the detectable level of BHC in sediment sample of Hanoiregion. Sapozhnikova et al. (2005)have reported DDT residues range from 0.0082-0.0347 µg/g in sediment samples ofDniester river, Moldova.
Quian et al.(2006) have reported the contamination BHC and DDT in surface sediments fromlake Dongting, the second largest freshwater lake in China.ConclusionTheresults of present study suggest that the organochlorine pesticides viz. ?BHC,Aldrin, ?-Endosulphan, ?DDT and Methoxychlor contamination is predominant atalmost all the four sites of river Ganga (Chandighat in Haridwar, Balawali,Shukratal and Barrage in Bijnor). The levels of organochlorines found in waterand sediments samples were quite high at most of the places but these are comparable to other parts ofIndia while high as compared to other countries viz. Spain, Egypt, China andMoldova.
Results also revealed low concentrations of organochlorine pesticidesand its derivatives in water and higher in sediments. This is because they areless soluble in aquatic phase, but they are well-trapped in sediment particles.The organochlorine pesticides remain in the environment long after its application as they break down slowly. DDT, whichis the most notorious organochlorine pesticide, was banned in the 1970s butstill present in traces as its half life is 75 years. Aside from this, the mostcommonly found organochlorine pesticides are HCH, Endosulphan, Aldrin etc.
Thesepesticides come either through direct dumping into rivers, etc. or fromagricultural areas. Results of the present study may find reference for thepolicy makers and diplomats to decide the use of organochlorine pesticides invector control program and in agriculture.
