Assessment of air pollution tolerance index of some trees in Moradabad city, India.

To see the relative tolerance of the plant species, ten different plant species i.e. Ficus rumphii, Pongamia pinnata, Alstonia scholaris, Holoptelea integrifolia, Saraca indica, Pithecolobium dulcis, Cassia simea, Bauhinia variegata, Azadirachta indica and Grewelia robusta was taken from residential (SI), industrial (SII) and commercial (SIII) area of the city as this florais very much common to the Brass city and is planted on the roadside. The quality of air with respect to SPM, SO2 and NO2 has been also assessed on respective sites to see its effect on biochemical parameters of the leaves i.e. pH, total water content, chlorophyll and ascorbic acid and evaluate the (air pollution tolerance index (APTI) of various plants. It was concluded that Pongamia pinnata 15.8, Pithecolobium dulcis 34.8, Holoptelea integrifolia 55.8 and Saraca indica 52.0 have very high APTI value over control so these are considered as high tolerant tree species, Ficus rumphii 35.7, Azadirachta indica 30.5 and Grewelia robusta 34.3 have slightlymoreAPTI value over control so these are considered as moderately tolerant tree species and Alstonia scholaris 21.5, Cassia simea 6.09 and Bauhinia variegata 18.22 have lessAPTI value than control, so these are sensitive species respectively. One way ANOVA finds the obtained values to be highly significant (p < 0.001) at the industrial site. Thus present findings show that Brass and allied industries are the prominent sources responsible for the elevated level of air pollutants at the industrial site.