Evaluation of Some Tree Species to Absorb Air Pollutants in Three Industrial Locations of South Bengaluru, India

With the fast growing and excessive increase in industrial projects in Bengaluru, the level of pollution is also increasing. Metal-accumulating woody species have been considered for phytoextraction of metal-contaminated sites. The study examined the air pollution tolerance indices (APTI) of plant species around three industrial areas of south Bengaluru. The physiological and biochemical parameters, which are relative to leaf's water content (RWC), ascorbic acid content (AA), total leaf chlorophyll (TCh) and leaf extract pH were used to compute the APTI values and three heavy metals were selected (cadmium, lead and zinc) for analysis. The result shows that the most tolerant tree species with respect to ATPI and heavy metal concentration were Ficus religiosa, Azadirachta indica and Pongamia pinnata (L.). These plants can be considered as tolerant species in the industrial areas. The APTI values for remaining species are reported lower and are considered as sensitive species. Further studies on air pollution tolerance index with respect to three industrial areas of south Bengaluru indicated that the air pollution was maximum in Jigani industrial area and minimum in Electronic city.