Physico-Chemical Study of Ecology and Water quality in Eastern, South-Eastern part of Central Indian Himalayas as a result of Magnesite Mining

Water is an inorganic transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance. It is a main constituent of earth’s hydrosphere and protoplasm and is vital for all known forms of life. The study area is located in Kumaun which lies along the eastern and south-eastern part of the Central Indian Himalaya. The magnesite mines under study are located in Kumaun Lesser Himalaya of Central Indian Himalaya at Jhiroli of district Almora of Uttrakhand amidst latitude 29° 45' 30'' N and 29° 47' 30'' N and longitude 79°44’E and 79° 46’E. The mining is being carried out by an open cast method with a semi-mechanized system of overburden removal with manual sorting, dressing, and loading of magnesite. The magnesite mines are located in the region representing the hilly nature of topography. The hill slopes of the area are generally concave and convex with slope inclination ranging between 34° to 70°. The mining operation can’t be fully mechanized as the magnesite mines have varying length and thicker layer of magnesite deposits. Therefore, the recourse is taken to selective mining and hand sorting. The mining of raw magnesite involves drilling, blasting, crude collection, and spoil removal. The parameters with respect to water analysis discussed, are turbidity, colour, odour, pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), total solids (TS), total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved Oxygen, acidity, alkanity, ammonical nitrogen, hardness in water due sulphates, chlorides, fluorides, magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium etc.