Study of the Effect of Air Pollution on Wheat RAJESH KUMAR SINGH

Wheat is a very important crop of Indian farmers. Most of the people fooding depend upon wheat. There are several eatable food products prepared by wheat. Wheat is cultivated mostly in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Recently in these states industrialization and infrastructure development work are going very fast causing huge amounts of pollutants and particulate entering into the atmosphere. Pollutants are oxide of carbon, oxide of nitrogen, oxide of sulphur, oxide of chlorine, chloride ions, ammonia, organic acids and aldehydes where as particulates are dust, smoke, mist and fog. Particulates are deposited on the surface of wheat. Some of these particulates are hydroscopic in nature. They absorb pollutants and form acids. These acids in turn develop micro electrochemical cell with flower of wheat which destroy flowering of wheat. Other factors are acid rain, global warming and depletion of ozone layer also affect the production of wheat.

Wheat flowering period starts from December to February.Particulates are scattered into the atmosphere which are deposited on the surface of wheat.Some of these particulates are hydroscopic 12 in nature.They absorb moisture 13 from the atmosphere.The moist particulates 14 absorb oxide of carbon, oxide of nitrogen, oxide of sulpher, oxide of chlorine and chlorine ion to form carbonic acid, nitric acid, sulphuric acid, hypochlorous acid and hydrochloric acid.These acids are highly corrosive in nature.They create hostile environment for wheat flowers.The corrosive acid produces micro electrochemical cell with wheat flower thus electrochemical reaction occurs on the surface of wheat flowers in this way flower of wheat get destroyed and conversion of flowers into wheat is decreased.

Methodology
For this work certain wheat growing areas were selected like Ludhiyana in Panjab, Hishar in Haryana, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Patna in Bihar.The study of the characteristic behaviors of inorganic, organic and particulates pollutants and their effect on wheat flowers were done in detail.Monitoring works started during period of December to February.Corrosive gases and their acidic character were determined with the help of Pen types P H meter.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Wheat is main food of human being.Our country is highly populated.Our public have so many basic needs like food, clothe, house, education, hospital, electricity, transport, road, industry and telecommunication.For the completion of these basic needs we do not utilize our natural resources The main features of wheat depend upon temperature, humidity and nature of surrounding environment during its flowering period.The concentration of corrosive gases, particulate materials and humidity are high so they form H 2 CO 3 , HNO 3 , H 2 SO 4 , HClO and HCl.These acids produce H + ion that ion starts electrochemical reaction with wheat flowers.Due to this reaction flowers connectivity become weaker and finally they are detached with main branch of wheat plant.During the formation of acids exothermic reaction occurs and heat is evolved which increases the temperature of surrounding of wheat flowers, thus flowers are easily separated from its main branch.
The chemical reactions among them are written as The above mentioned acids are dissociated and released H + ion that ions in the presence of electrolytes develop an electrochemical cell causing oxidation and reduction reactions to start on the surface of wheat flowers.The electrochemical reaction is expressed as: This chemical reaction indicates that corrosive pollutants are corroding the wheat flowers.The P H values of above mentioned cities are recorded in Table 1 and bar graph plots between the P H values of corrosive pollutants and its concentrations in different cities.The results of Table 1 and Fig. 1 show that the concentration of H + ion in Ludhiyana city is higher than that of Hisar.Likewise the concentration of H + ion in Lucknow is greater than Patna and wheat crops of these areas are badly affected by pollutants.
The concentration of carbon dioxide and methane gases increases in atmosphere due to deforestation, industrialization and human waste decomposition.These gases produce global warming effect thus temperature of atmosphere is increased which exhibits bad affect on the wheat flowers.In lower level of atmosphere ozone is formed that ozone also disturbs wheat flowers.

CONCLUSION
Pollutants are very harmful for wheat flowers.They decrease its production.If its evolvement is not controlled at proper times, our

Fig. 1 :
Fig. 1: Plot between city and pH values of Acids in different cities