Assessment of Genotoxicity Induced by the Effluent of Supreme Paper Mill (India) on the Fish Heteropneustes fossilis (Bloch)

Effluent of Supreme Paper Mill at Chakdaha, West Bengal, India gets drained everyday into the river Ganges and makes the water polluted. Man as well as aquatic community, particularly fish are directly or indirectly exposed to these environmental stressors. The present study was conducted to find out the genotoxic effects caused by the effluents of supreme paper mill using assay of micronuclei (MN), abnormal nuclei (AN) in peripheral erythrocytes and total protein content of some vital organs, namely, muscle, gill and liver of Heteropneustes fossilis (Bloch). Fish were kept in different aquaria containing three different concentrations like, 100, 50 and 25 % of effluents (different concentrations was accomplished through addition of required amounts of tap water) for 10, 20, 30 and 60 days. The fishes kept in tap water served as control. It was found that induction of MN and AN was significantly increased in consecutive higher effluent concentrations than the control with more time span. On the contrary, the amount of total protein content was significantly lowered for all the tissues at the same exposure time against control. It was concluded that the paper mill effluent induced genotoxic effects to the experimental fish and to some extent may have an adverse effect in the nearby water of river Ganges.