AN EVALUATION OF WATER QUALITY OF MANGALAM RIVER WITH A SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SABARIMALA PILGRIMAGE SEASONM.A. SURAJ, K. MANOJ AND T.P. PRAVEENAbstract The present study deals with assessment of the water quality of the River Mangalam. Sabarimala is the largest annual pilgrimage in India with an estimated 4550 million devotees visiting every year. The Mangalam River is a small river not more than 50 kilometers. Pilgrims use the water of Mangalam River for various sanitary purposes. The water quality is also disturbed by various other anthropogenic activities by the population living near the river. The microbiological and physico-chemical characteristics were studied and analyzed during July2013 June 2014 using standard procedures. The mid-stream part of the river is selected for the study. The results revealed that the studied site showed more pollution during the pilgrimage season (post monsoon) than the off seasons (monsoon and summer) and also showed fluctuations in microbiological and physicochemical parameters. Pollution of river water can be reduced by providing proper sanitation facility to pilgrims and by providing proper methods for dumping of sewage and wastes.
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