Assessment of coastal pollution and its effects, southwest coast of India

Indiscriminate releases of partially treated or untreated wastes into the receiving water bodies have resulted in the water pollution, public health risks and loss of biodiversity. Gurupura river is situated very adjacent to the baikampady industrial cluster towards north of the Mangaluru city and it will end up with Arabian sea forming a estuary with Nethravathi river i.e., located at a distance of 20 km from the Baikampady Industrial cluster towards South. This study was carried out to know the impacts of anthropogenic activities along the Gurupura river. The study reveals that, the concentration of TDS, Conductivity, Chlorides, BOD and COD in the collected water samples exceeds the IS standards both-in the post monsoon and pre monsoon seasons and also large numbers of dead fishes were found in Nethravathi-Gurupura estuary point during the sampling time due to the industrial discharges.