Estimation of air pollution tolerance index of plants in selected locations in Kanpur City, India

Abstract

One of the world's most critical issues today is air pollution brought on by vehicle emissions, which poses a serious threat to both the environment and the health of living things (plants, humans, animals, microorganisms). Air pollution results from unsustainable, uncontrolled, and rapid development. As the amounts of different gases in the atmosphere increase, the quality of the air is getting worse and worse every day. A major contributor to air pollution is vehicle emissions 3,50,000 automobiles are registered in Kanpur, the eleventh most populous city in India. Plants along the road primarily absorb the majority of toxins released by vehicles. This study aims to determine the resistance and susceptibility of various plant species to air pollution. In the majority of developing countries, one of the causes of air pollution is vehicle emissions. Planting along the side of the road is an important method of reducing the pollution that vehicles emit. The APTI value of the plants is determined by four important biochemical parameters: pH, relative water content (RWC), total chlorophyll (Tch), and ascorbic acid (Asc) content of leaves. Plant leaves were gathered from two separate area of the city: a commercial area (Kanpur cantonment) and an industrial area (Chakeri). According to APTI values, the tolerant plants in the commercial area are Mangifera indica (30.54) and, while the tolerant category plants in the industrial area are Lonicera nigra (37.26), Nerium indicum (36.62) and Azadirachta indica (30.02).