Impact of brickfields on soil quality of agricultural land along the Bhagirathi-Hugli river basin, West Bengal, India

Abstract

The study has been conducted to evaluate the impact of brickfields on soil quality of agricultural land around the brickfields within the study area of the Bhagirathi-Hugli river basin. It has been carried out by determining the chemical properties such as pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (OC), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) of soil. In this study, 18 samples have been collected from 6 brickfields of distance 100, 400 and 800 m respectively of depth 0–25 cm. The data show that pH and EC are decreased from increasing distances of the brickfields but the value of OC, N, P, and K are increased from increasing distances of the brick kilns. The result of ANOVA shows that EC has insignificant differences, but P within different distant zones. Tukey test informs that P is remarkably different between the distant groups of 100–800 m and 400–800 m but 100–400 m at the significant value of 0.05. Results of the Kruskal–Wallis test indicates that the soil pH and potassium (K) are significantly different, but OC and N are not. The Dwass–Steel–Critchlow–Fligner test also indicates that the different distant groups of pH (100–400 m and 400–800 m) and K (400–800 m) are of a trivial difference in the significant value of 0.05. The overall study reveals that the quality of the soil is deteriorating close to brickfield from far distances due to indiscriminate activities of brick kiln industry.