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Environmental Engineering and Management Journal January/February 2008, Vol.7, No.1, 31-35
http://omicron.ch.tuiasi.ro/EEMJ/
______________________________________________________________________________________________
IMPACT OF DUST EMISSION ON PLANT VEGETATION
IN THE VICINITY OF CEMENT PLANT
Shukla Sudheer Kumar1∗, Nagpure Ajay Singh2, VivekKumar 1, Baby Sunisha3,
Shrivastava Preeti3, Singh Deepali3,Shukla Ravindra Nath3
1Department of Paper Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Saharanpur Campus, Saharanpur- 247001, India
2Department ofCivil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee India
3School of Environmental Biology, Awadhesh Pratap Singh University Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, India
Abstract
Environment is a major issue which confronts industry and business in today’s world on daily basis. Different industrial activities
are degrading various environmental components like water, air, soil and plant vegetation. Cement industry is one of the 17 most
polluting industries listed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The Jaypee Rewa Cement Cement industry, Rewa,
Madhaya Pradesh is located between 24o 33’ North longitude and 81o 10’ east latitude and is situated at Jay Prakash Nagar 20
km from Rewa Town of Madhya Pradesh, India. The Jaypee Rewa Cement industry is the major source of particulate matters,
SOx, NOx and CO2, emissions. Cement dust contains heavy metals like nickel, cobalt, lead, chromium, pollutants hazardous to the
biotic environment, with impact for vegetation, human and animal health and ecosystems. Present paper attempts to focus on
impact of cement emission on plant vegetation.
Key words: cement industry, environmental impact assessment, environmental problem, dust pollution
∗Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed: Phone: + 919411078360, +91-132-2727354, Fax: +91-132-2726456, E-mail:
sudheertejasvee@yahoo.co.in, shuklasudheer@rediffmail.com
1. Introduction
Diverse industrial activities are degrading
various environmental components like water, air,
soil and plant vegetation. The environmental
pollution as a result of cement industry could be
defined as the adverse impact induced for water, air
and land through various activities, starting from
mining activity of the raw material (lime stone,
dolomite etc.) up to its crushing, grinding, and other
processes developing in a cement plant. Cement
industry is one of the 17 most polluting industries
listed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
The extensive extraction of raw material not
only adds various pollutants/contaminants to the
environment but also disturb the total ecosystem of
the area. The gases and dust from the cement plant
are in no way less hazardous compared to other
industries. Cement kiln dust is proven to have
cytogenetic and mutagenetic properties (Shivkumar et
al., 1995). Dispersion pattern of suspended particulate
matter in ambient air of electrostatic precipitator
(ESP) of cement plants and calcification of surface
soil in the vicinity of the cement plant have been
reported by earlier workers (Banrjee et al., 1986;
Banrjee et al., 1987).
2. Study area
The Jaypee Rewa Cement, Rewa, Madhaya
Pradesh was selected for the present study. It is one of
the biggest cement factories of India. The J.P. Cement
industry is located between 24o 33’ north longitude
and 81o 10’ east latitude and is situated at Jay Prakash
Nagar 20 km from Rewa Town. Eight villages were
chosen for present study, located in different
directions and distances from the plant, as given in
Table 1 (Shukla et al., 2003).
Naubasta village is nearest to Jaypee Rewa
Cement (JRC) plant. The total area of the village is
532.67 hectares and the population is 4000 on the
basis of the 2001 survey. The movements of mine
“Gh. Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Romania
Kumar et al. /Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 7 (2008), 1, 31-35
32
vehicles have a great impact on this village as it falls
on the way from JRC plant to Naubasta mines.
Chhijwar is on the south of JRC plant about
one km distance, with 495.29 hectare area. Population
of this village is 4315. The mining of limestone is
carried out in this village.
Gadwa is located about 2 km on north of JRC
plant. It has 518 hectare area and 4600 population.
The lime stone mining is the major activity.
Kachur is situated in the north east direction
of JRC plant located at a distance of 3 km. Total land
of this village is 679.67 hectare and population is
3000. Tiwani is located at a distance of 3 km on the
south east direction. It has 473.62 hectare land and
2032 individuals.
Sagouni is nearer to Tiwani at a distance of 3
km in the south-east direction.
Maddhepur is located at a distance of 5 km
on the south west direction, with 599.26 hectare total
area and 2200 population.
Turki is located at a distance of 5 km. on the
west direction of JRC plant. The total area of this
village is 521.82 hectare and total 3000 individuals
live in this village.
3. Material and method
3.1. Impact assessment on plant vegetation
An attempt has been made to record the impact
of emissions from cement industry on vegetation.
Five plant species were selected i.e. Madhuca indica,
Ficus religeosa, Azadirechta indica, Eucalyptus
globulus and Mangifera indica in an area of five
kilometers surroundings of cement plant and
experiments were conducted as is described below
(Carlson et al., 1996; Chang et al., 1999).
3.2 Dust load estimation
In order to estimate the dust load, 25 leaves
from different branches of selected tree species have
been collected and kept in separate polythene bags. In
the laboratory, the leaves from each polythene bags
were washed. The water containing dust had been
filtered through pre-weighed filter paper. The filter
papers were dried in the oven over night and weighed
again. The difference in the weight of filter paper
yielded the amount of dust on the sampled leaves.
The leaves surface area was calculated. From this
data, dust load per cm2 of leaf was calculated
(Carlson et al., 1996; Chang et al,. 1999).
3.3. Chlorosis and necrosis
Chlorosis is the phenomenon of leaves
yellowing due to the loss of chlorophyll. Necrosis
means the wilting of leaves due to the lack of
chlorophyll. Chlorosis and necrosis occur due to
exposure to pollutants like SOx, NOx etc. For
measuring the extent of chlorotic effects, 200 leaves
were collected at different heights and the
percentages of leaves exhibiting chlorosis and
necrosis were calculated (Carlson et al., 1996; Chang
et al., 1999).
4. Result and discussion
Table 2 and Fig. 1 reveal that the dust load
was maximum on all types of plants sampled Gadwa,
located at 2 km on the north side, followed by
Naubasta (East) and Kachur situated 3 km away on
North-East side. The maximum deposition per cm2
was on Azadirechta indica, followed by Eucalyptus
globulus. The smallest amount of deposition was
found on Ficus religeosa. The dust load study
revealed that a small amount of dust was deposited in
Maddhepur and Turki located 5 km away on south-
west and west direction respectively. Prevalent wind
flow direction was also north and north-east direction.
Azadirechta indica and Eucalyptus globulus showed a
high dust holding capacity followed by Madhuca
indica, while Mangifera indica and Ficus religeosa
showed a small dust holding capacity.
Table 3 shows the data on leaves suffered
from necrosis/chlorosis of all five tested plants. It
was found that the highest values resulted in Kachur,
situated 3 km in north-east direction and Naubasta, in
north direction. This was followed by Sagouni (SE)
and Gadwa (North). The smallest number of leaves
suffering of necrosis/chlorosis was found in Turki
(West) and Maddhepur (SW) (Fig. 2). Mangifera
indica and Azadirechta indica were affected the most,
while Madhuca indica and Eucalyptus globulus were
affected least plant species from chlorosis and
necrosis.
Table 1. Details of villages studied
No. of
site
Village name Direction with respect
to industry
Distance with respect to
industry (km)
Area (hectares) Population
1. Naubasta
East
0
532.67
4000
2. Chhijwar
South
1
495.29
4315
3.
Gadwa
North
2
518
4600
4. Kachur
North- East
3
679.67
3000
5.
Tiwani
South- East
3
473.62
2032
6. Sagouni
South-East
3
332.54
3210
7. Maddhepur
South-West
5
599.26
2200
8.
Turki
West
5
521.82
3000
Impact of dust emission on plant vegetation in the vicinity of cement plant
33
Table 2. Dust load on plant species
Site
number Plants in Village
Distance
and
direction Dust load of 25
leaves (mg) Dust load per
leaf (mg) Dust load
mg/cm2
1.
Naubasta
0 km
Mangifera indica
600
24
0.4
Ficus religeosa
165
6.6
0.62
Eucalyptus globulus
900
36
1.9
Azadirechta indica
1350
54
0.87
Maduca indica
1880
75.2
0.87
2.
Kachur
3 km NE
Mangifera indica
556
22.6
0.42
Ficus religeosa
119
7.6
0.15
Eucalyptus globulus
780
31.2
1.32
Azadirechta indica
1225
49
1.48
Maduca indica
625
25
0.28
3.
Tiwani
3 km SE
Mangifera indica
600
24
0.43
Ficus religeosa
500
20
0.33
Eucalyptus globulus
400 16 0.66
Azadirechta indica
600
24
0.81
Maduca indica
500
20
0.91
4.
Sagouni
3 km SE
Mangifera indica
525
21
0.45
Ficus religeosa
400
16
0.30
Eucalyptus globulus
175
7
0.19
Azadirechta indica
475
19
0.63
Maduca indica
365
14.6
0.130
5.
Maddhepur
5 km SW
Mangifera indica
255
10.2
0.24
Ficus religeosa
225
9
0.15
Eucalyptus globulus
2510
100.4
0.21
Azadirechta indica
125
5
0.18
Maduca indica
575
23
0.23
6.
Turki
5 km West
Mangifera indica
330
13.2
0.30
Ficus religeosa
210
8.4
0.14
Eucalyptus globulus
215
8.6
0.17
Azadirechta indica
90
3.6
0.13
Maduca indica
457
19
0.18
7.
Gadwa
2 km North
Mangifera indica
125
21
0.05
Ficus religeosa
150
6
0.09
Eucalyptus globulus
860
34.4
1.25
Azadirechta indica
1295
51.8
2.46
Maduca indica
800
32
0.48
8.
Chhijwar
1 km South
Mangifera indica
550
22
0.42
Ficus religeosa
110
4.4
0.52
Eucalyptus globulus
100
4
0.136
Azadirechta indica
850
34
0.22
Maduca indica
4100
164
1.63
Kumar et al. /Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 7 (2008), 1, 31-35
34
Table 3. Necrosis/chlorosis on plant species
Site
number Village
Distance and
direction
% of leaves suffered necrosis/chlorosis
Madhuca
indica
Mangifera
indica
Azadirechta
indica
Ficus
religeosa
Eucalyptus
globulus
1. Naubasta 0, East
6
60
42
37
5
2. Chhijwar 1, South
3
14
24
13
3
3.
Gadwa
2, North
5
42
43
39
5
4. Kachur 3, North- East 20
60
60
46
19
5.
Tiwani 3, South- East 2
14
38
6
2
6. Sagouni 3, South-East 9
58
55
37
9
7. Maddhepur 5, South-West 4
6
8
3
3
8.
Turki
5, West NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA = Not affected
Fig. 1. Variation in dust load in various plant species in different villages
Fig. 2. Leaves suffering of necrosis/chlorosis in different villages
Impact of dust emission on plant vegetation in the vicinity of cement plant
35
5. Conclusions
The research presented in this work revealed
that the cement industry is one of the highly polluting
industry, the major impact being confined to air
environment. Control SPM and other emissions
should be given top priority to maintain the
ecosystem around the unit in its natural or near to
natural form.
Proper maintenance on the various process
equipment and machine efficiency ensure reduction in
the generation of dust and gases during various
operations. This would reduce adverse impact on
vegetation and human life. Adequate green belt
should be developed in the plant area and in the
village vicinity in order to restrict spreading of dust.
Cement industry faces a lot of problems due to
mining activity. To overcome this problem, they
should start back-filling of abandoned mine as soon
as they complete the mining of a particular area.
Dense plantations should also be done to prevent the
soil erosion and silting problem of Kariyari River. It
was also found in above study that Azadirechta indica
and Eucalyptus globulus were the species which
showed high dust holding capacity followed by
Madhuca indica. Also Madhuca indica and
Eucalyptus globulus were least affected plant species
from chlorosis and necrosis. So Eucalyptus globulus
and Madhuca indica may be very significant for using
as green belt surroundings of cement industry.
References
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