In India, million tons of temple waste (nirmalya) is produced every day. The waste collected from... more In India, million tons of temple waste (nirmalya) is produced every day. The waste collected from temple mainly consists of flowers, leaves, fruits, honey, coconuts, camphor, jaggery, milk etc. which is released in the water bodies or dumped at the available land spaces, thereby leading to severe environmental pollution and health hazards. Bioremediation of nirmalya can be carried out by vermicomposting. Vermicomposting is an eco-friendly process of efficiently converting organic waste into compost with the help of soil microorganism and earthworms. In our work Nirmalya was taken from a temple in South Mumbai, which was pre-composted at 30 o C and used as a substrate for vermicomposting by earthworm species Eisenia foetida for 90 days. The chemical analysis of the vermicompost showed its pH (7.2), the organic carbon content (8.57%), N (0.49%), total P (0.5%), K (0.16%), C: N ratio (17.489) and also contained sufficient concentration of microelements like zinc, manganese, iron and copper. The total bacterial count of vermiwash was found to be 3×10 9 cfu/ml. The bacteria which were isolated from vermiwash showed various enzyme activities like protease, cellulase, phosphatase, amylase, gelatinase and lipase. The presence of nitrogen fixing bacteria like Azotobacter and Rhizobium from vermiwash was also demonstrated. The vermicompost obtained was checked for its effect on the growth of the test plants like Tagetes erecta and Solanum melongena using pot culture studies. One of the bacterial isolates was identified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens HY10 by morphological, cultural, biochemical and 16s rRNA sequence analysis which showed protease (32.53units/ml) and lipase activity (3.177units/ml).
In India, million tons of temple waste (nirmalya) is produced every day. The waste collected from... more In India, million tons of temple waste (nirmalya) is produced every day. The waste collected from temple mainly consists of flowers, leaves, fruits, honey, coconuts, camphor, jaggery, milk etc. which is released in the water bodies or dumped at the available land spaces, thereby leading to severe environmental pollution and health hazards. Bioremediation of nirmalya can be carried out by vermicomposting. Vermicomposting is an eco-friendly process of efficiently converting organic waste into compost with the help of soil microorganism and earthworms. In our work Nirmalya was taken from a temple in South Mumbai, which was pre-composted at 30 o C and used as a substrate for vermicomposting by earthworm species Eisenia foetida for 90 days. The chemical analysis of the vermicompost showed its pH (7.2), the organic carbon content (8.57%), N (0.49%), total P (0.5%), K (0.16%), C: N ratio (17.489) and also contained sufficient concentration of microelements like zinc, manganese, iron and copper. The total bacterial count of vermiwash was found to be 3×10 9 cfu/ml. The bacteria which were isolated from vermiwash showed various enzyme activities like protease, cellulase, phosphatase, amylase, gelatinase and lipase. The presence of nitrogen fixing bacteria like Azotobacter and Rhizobium from vermiwash was also demonstrated. The vermicompost obtained was checked for its effect on the growth of the test plants like Tagetes erecta and Solanum melongena using pot culture studies. One of the bacterial isolates was identified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens HY10 by morphological, cultural, biochemical and 16s rRNA sequence analysis which showed protease (32.53units/ml) and lipase activity (3.177units/ml).
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