Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE CONTAMINATION LEVEL OF DAL LAKE, KASHMIR BASED ON TOTAL VIABLE BACTERIAL COUNTS OVER A PERIOD OF TIME

Monisa Malik, M.H. Balkhi and Adnan Abubakr

Abstract

The present study was carried out over a period from Sept, 2010 to Aug, 2011 and Sept, 2013 to Aug, 2014 covering all four seasons in both the years. A comparison in the bacterial load of three stations from Dal lake was done for these two years. The study revealed that the bacterial load of the lake has increased from 3.71±0.37 to 5.88±0.18 in winter; 4.59±0.27 to 6.09±0.17 in spring; 5.84±0.11 to 6.64±0.17 in summer and 5.25±0.33 to 6.46±0.12 in autumn seasons at the various sites under study. The maximum bacterial load was reported in Hazratbal station during both the study periods. A considerable increase in the load was recorded at all the sites during all seasons indicating advancing trophic condition of the lake.