Way too often, media coverage on science and
technology tends to concentrate on topics of current fashion or what some
people call as “high-fi” themes — be it the God particle, stem cell biology, or
yet another nanomaterial. Articles that appear in “high impact” journals are
covered more often while discoveries and analysis of everyday problems and
suggestions to handle them, usually published in more modest journals are given
the go-by. Two such reports concerned with pressing problems of everyday importance
to India appear in the latest
issue of Current Science (Volume 106, 10 February 2014, pages 343-345),
which need to be highlighted. One of them has to do with the overload of
phosphorus in the soils of Kerala and how it affects the health of the land and
the waters of the region and what may be done about it. And the other is a
report about the discovery of a few bacteria in the coast of Gujarat which can
degrade plastic materials such as polythene. And it is a pity that main line
media, right here in India, have not found them worthy of coverage and
publicity.
The first is a short report
(just about 1200 words and two figures) by scientists from the Indian Institute
of Spices Research in Calicut, concerning the massive accumulation of
phosphorus in the soils of Kerala. The Kerala State Planning Board has taken up
the massive (and rather “boring”) task of analyzing the status of acidity in
the agricultural field in all the Panchayats of the state. As many as 1,56,801
samples across the state were analysed (a huge exercise in itself) and of these
about 91 per cent of the fields were found to be moderate to strongly acidic
(pH between 6.5 and 4.5). This is bad because plants grow best by absorbing
nutrients from soil whose pH is between 6.5 and 7.5. This is the ideal pH range
for plant root growth; when the pH reduces below 6.5, the phosphorus (P) in the
soil gets “fixed” by the metals present in the soil (such as aluminum and iron)
and no longer available in the soluble form for absorption by the plant roots.
And P is vital since it is used not only to make the DNA and RNA of the plant
cells but also as the energy currency in the biochemical processes that all
living beings use for metabolism (just as we use the rupee in our daily live
transactions).
How did this high level of P
come about? Through the overuse of fertilizers and manure by the farmers. As
the Calicut scientists report, soil in Kerala is already inherently acidic and
the overuse of fertilizers and manure only adds to the problem. Not only does
much of the P in the soil gets fixed and becomes unavailable for plant growth
but even some of the soluble phosphorus is lost through the run-off water from
these sites and affects the quality of water in the nearby lakes and water
bodies.
The Kerala State Planning
Board’s report is thus an important and admirable exercise that calls for
action. The Calicut scientists make some relevant suggestions towards this, e.
g., skip the applications of high P fertilizers, test the soil periodically and
reduce (or avoid) manure that contains high amounts of P. We must express our
appreciation to Drs K. M. Nair, P, Rajasekharan, G. Rajasree, P. Suresh Kumar
and M. C.Narayanan Kutty of the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use
Planning (of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research), the Kerala State
Planning Board, and Drs R. Dinesh, V. Srinivasan, S. Hamza and M. Anandaraj, at
the Indian Institute of Spices Research at Calicut for this important and
relevant research and analysis. The second report in page 345 of the same issue
of Current Science, by the budding science writer Ipsita Herlekar, highlights
the discovery by scientists at the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research
Institute, Bhavnagar, Gujarat. These scientists analysed as many as 60 types of
bacteria in the Arabian Sea along the coast of Gujarat and found three species
from there, namely, K. Palustris M16, B. Pumilus M27, and B. Subtilis H1584,
are able to “eat” polyethylene — the synthetic plastic used in everyday life as
bags and films to cover materials, and that the B. Subtilis H158 strain was the
best among the three. This calls for further work which might help us find an
eco-friendly way to manage this totally out of hand (and totally man-made)
menace of plastic waste and pollution.
Let us applaud Drs K.
Harshvardhan and B.Jha, the CSMCRI scientists for this discovery and hope they
will take this further into the level of practical application, Ipsita for
elegantly highlighting this CSMCRI work, and the journal Current Science for
publishing these reports which are of “high impact” at the practical and
actionable level. Bread and butter science is just important as “blue sky”
science.
The above article is a repost from TheHindu
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