I Wish to Express My Deep Sense of Gratitude and Heartfelt Indebtedness to Dr. S.N. Pandey

Acknowledgement

I wish to express my deep sense of gratitude and heartfelt indebtedness to

Dr. S.N. Pandey, Department of Botany, University of Lucknow, Lucknow supervisor of my thesis for his concrete suggestions, constructive criticisms, constant inspiration and encouragement throughout the course of this investigation and in the preparation of the manuscript of the thesis.

It’s my proud privilege to place on record my deep sense of gratitude and sincere thanks to Dr. R.B. Singh, Department of Physics, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, my co-supervisor, under whose able guidance the research work present in the dissertation was carried out.

I am thankful to Professor Y.K. Sharma, Head Department of Botany, University of Lucknow, Lucknow for giving me laboratory facilities, encouragement and an opportunity to work in this department.

I express my sincere thanks to Professor C.P. Sharma, former Head, Department of Botany and former Dean, Faculty of Science, Lucknow University, Lucknow for his invaluable suggestions.

I would also take this opportunity to thanks the laboratory members, rohit, Alka,

Shadma, Sanghpriya, Kavita, Rajeev, Amalesh, Poonam, Pankaj Kannoujiya and Pankaj

Giri for their kind support and cooperation during the experimentation and preparation of this thesis.

I wish to record my cordial thanks to all the teachers and non-teaching members of the Botany Department, who helped me during this study.

My whole hearted thanks to my father Mr. Shyam sunder verma and mother Ms.

Kamla Devi for their support, cooperation and blessings, who permitted me to join this research work.

i Last but not least, I thanks to all those whose names do not figure here but who helped me directly or indirectly in this work.

(Abhay Kumar Verma)

ii PREFACE

A large, net work of expresshighways throughout the world and also in India, provide transport facility to the people and play important role to convey socio- economical benefits to the country. But, at the same time transport activities also contribute huge loss of natural resources (soil, water and living organisms). It has been very clear that, the transportation is a major source of pollution which causes adverse effects on environment.

In India, a large net work of express highways (about 3420 km) including Ganga expressway (about 1047 km) from district Great Noida to Balia have been proposed. To protect the environment and loss of various habitats under the expressway area needs to make policy eco-friendly prior to it’s construction and start to its activities. Without environmental impact assessment, the various problems have led to much controversy in environmental policy and in the role of transportation.

The dissertation describes the field observations of proposed Ganga expressway area (Unnao district) at expresshighway (NH 25) already in service from 25 years. Also, various pollution parameters including some potentially toxic heavy metals assessed in soil, water and plants to study areas at expresshighway (NH 25) in Unnao district (U.P. state, India).

The thesis is presented in the following chapters:

Chapter one includes a brief introduction to this area of research, chosen problematic zone, selected objectives to be taken. Chapter two includes the review of literature reported on different aspects of the present study. The details of various experimental materials, procedures and technique that were employed in order to accomplish the objectives have been described in chapter three. Chapter four describes the field observations, the results of experiments conducted to accomplish the objectives.

iii The results obtained have been discussed in the light of justification with reference to the already available information and their possible interpretation in chapter five. Chapter six briefly summarizes the work that has been presented in this thesis.

Bibliography consists of a list of publications referred and cited in this thesis.

iv ABBREVIATIONS

Km Kilometer(s) M Meters(s) cm Centimeter g Gram mg Milligram(s) ml Millilitre(s) L Litere(s) µ Micro µm Microgram fr.wt. Fresh weight dr.wt. Dry weight oC Degree centigrade TS Total solids ppm Parts per million AAS Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer Cr Chromium

K2Cr2O7 Potassium dichromate Ni Nickel EDTA Ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid pH Potential of hydrogen ion concentration Zn Zinc Cu Copper CO Carbon monoxide NH Natinal highway Mi Miles M Molar FAS Ferrous ammonium sulphate NF Not found during observation ND Not detectable S.E. Standard error SPM Suspended particulate matter NEAI National Expresseays Authority of India