Assessment of Air Pollution Tolerance Index o...

Assessment of Air Pollution Tolerance Index of Some Plants Growing Along The Median Strips In The R And P South Wards Of Mumbai

Author Name : Yadav Sonam, Palathingal Trisa, Bhagat Sachin

ABSTRACT

A City can be beautified by growing plants and trees along the roadside pavements. Median strips are the dividing areas, which divides a road on the highways in the city. In addition to adding an aesthetic value and beautifying the place, it also helps the traffic to move in an orderly way so that the vehicles moving in opposite directions do not cross lanes, reducing accidents. Air pollution is one of the grave problems facing us today. Air pollution tolerance Index is an effective tool to monitor plant tolerance towards air pollution. It helps in finding out plants that are tolerant or sensitive towards air pollution depending upon the APTI values obtained. The Sensitive plant species can be used as bio indicators and tolerant species can be used for development of green belts. For the present study, fourteen most commonly found plants growing along the median strips were selected. Out of the fourteen plant species studied comparatively high APTI value was found in Pancratium triflorum, Ixora coccinea and Sansevieria trifasciata.  The order of tolerance can be stated as Pancratium triflorum > Ixora coccinea > Sansevieria trifasciata > Tradescantia discolor > Jatropha podagrica > Lantana camara as per the APTI values, hence these plants can be grown along the median strips. However, the APTI values were found to be comparatively lower in Portulaca oleraceae, Ficus benjamina and in Ficus religiosa. Hence these plants should not be preferred while selecting plants to be grown along the median strips.

Key Words: Air pollution, APTI, Green belt, tolerant plants, median strips