| Summary: | Groundwater of many areas of West Bengal, India is severely contaminated with arsenic. The paddy soil gets con¬taminated from the groundwater and thus there is a probability of bioaccumulation of arsenic in rice plants cultivated with arsenic contaminated groundwater and soil. This study aims at assessing the level of arsenic in irrigation water and soil and to investigate the seasonal bioaccumulation of arsenic in the various parts (straw, husk and grain) of the rice plant of differ¬ent varieties in the arsenic affected two blocks (Chakdaha and Ranaghat-I) of Nadia district, West Bengal. It was found that the arsenic uptake in rice during the pre-monsoon season is more than that of the post-monsoon season. The accumulation of arsenic found to vary with different rice varieties; the maximum accumulation was in White minikit (0.31±0.005 mg/kg) and IR 50 (0.29±0.001 mg/kg) rice varieties and minimum was found to be in the Jaya rice variety (0.14±0.002 mg/kg). In rice plant maximum arsenic accumulation occurred in the straw part (0.89±0.019-1.65±0.021 mg/kg) compared to the ac¬cumulation in husk (0.31±0.011-0.85±0.016 mg/kg) and grain (0.14±0.002-0.31±0.005 mg/kg) parts. For any rice sample concentration of arsenic in the grain did not exceed the WHO recommended permissible limit in rice (1.0 mg/kg).
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