Irrigation of agricultural land with wastewater leads to continuous buildup of metals at these sites which gets accumulated in the vegetables and crops growing on these sites. Not just the crops irrigated with wastewater are hazardous, in present study, we have found that vegetables growing in vicinity of wastewater drain are also not safe for human consumption. The risk associated with consumption of vegetables was assessed by calculating hazard quotient and results revealed that the hazard quotient for leafy and tuberous vegetables was higher than the safe limits in all the sites irrespective of mode of irrigation. Spinach was the most hazardous among all as the hazard quotient with respect to cobalt and copper was highest in spinach. Uptake trend of metals in all vegetables: Iron > Cobalt > Copper > Cadmium > Lead. Cadmium, a potential carcinogen was found in concentrations higher than permissible limits in many vegetables from all sites. Highest level of cadmium (1.20 mg/kg) and copper (81.33 mg/kg) was reported in site which was in vicinity of waste water drain but irrigated with ground water. Concentration of copper and lead in vegetable samples from different sites exhibited no statistically significant difference with respect to different sites.

Wetlands, the biological filters of the Earth, play an important role in biochemical transformation of various pollutants. Wetland plants, in this direction, help in accumulating various contaminants from aquatic bodies. Considering this, the present study was planned to estimate different metals (Cd, Cu, Cr, Co, Fe, Pb, Zn, and Mn) in water, sediment, soil, and plant (4 aquatic and 12 terrestrial) samples of Kanjli wetland, Kapurthala, Punjab (India), and a Ramsar site. It was observed that the contents of Cd and Pb in water samples were higher than limits prescribed by Bureau of Indian standards. Bioaccumulation and translocation factors for various metals were also calculated. Although all the plant species were found to be hyperaccumulator for one or the other metal studied, maximum six metals (Cd, Co, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn) were bioaccumulated inPanicum antidotaleamong aquatic plant species while (Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn) inLantana camaraandAgeratum conyzoidsamong terrestrial plants species. It is evident that all these plants have potential to phytoremediate various inorganic pollutants and can act as bioindicators. The physicochemical characteristics revealed high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and nitrate (NO₃) contents and low dissolved oxygen (DO) in water samples while the high content of phosphates in soil and sediment samples.

The present study was carried out to determine the physico-chemical characteristics and heavy metal contents in roadside soil samples collected during 2 sampling periods (September 2018 and April 2019) from 8 different roadside sites lying parallel to the Buddha Nullah, an old rivulet, flowing through Ludhiana, (Punjab) India. The contents (mg/kg) of seven metals (cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, nickel and zinc) were estimated using a flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Among the metals analyzed, the contents of Cd, Co, Cu, Pb and Zn were found above the permissible limits. The results of the index of geoaccumulation (Igeo), contamination factor (CF), contamination degree (Cdeg), modified contamination degree (mCdeg), the Nemerow pollution index (PI) and pollution load index (PLI) indicate a moderate to high heavy metal contamination of the analyzed soil samples. The results of the potential ecological risk factor (ERi) and potential ecological risk index (RI) indicate a low to moderate risk of heavy metals in the studied soil samples. The Pearson correlation analysis revealed that most of the variables exhibited a statistically significant correlation with one or more variables during the two samplings. Multivariate analysis demonstrates that contents of heavy metals in the study area are influenced by anthropogenic and geogenic factors.