Siddhartha Shankar Hota & Gouri Suresh*
*Department of Botany, Jamshedpur Women’s College,
Jamshedpur 831001, Jharkhand, India
Received 23rd December, 2011; Revised 10th February, 2012
Abstract : Kharkai and Subarnarekha are the two rivers flowing through Jamshedpur, one of the important industrial cities of India. These two rivers meet at a place called ‘Domuhani’, or ‘Rivers Meet’ in Jamshedpur, and thereafter flow as one river. In fact, Kharkai is one of the tributaries of Subarnarekha. Discharges from many small and medium scale industries of Jamshedpur are seen to flow into Kharkai, which empties into Subarnarekha at Domuhani. Water from River Subarnarekha is used for drinking after treatment by the JUSCO Water Treatment Plant, only in the TISCO areas. People living in non TISCO areas use water from Subarnarekha directly. Thus it is essential to study water pollution in both the rivers. The present study comprises identification of the cyanobacteria or the blue green algae of Kharkai and Subarnarekha at Domuhani, because it is well known that blue green algae are more abundant in polluted waters than green algae. While 28 different blue green algal taxa have been seen growing in River Kharkai, only 14 were there in River Subarnarekha at Domuhani. This information can be used by concerned authorities for taking corrective measures.
