INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2015 ISSN 2277-8616 158 IJSTR©2015 www.ijstr.org __________________________  Md. Farhad Ali, Assistant Professor, Institute of Leather Engineering and Technology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh; PH: +8801711043888.  E-mail: farhadali72@gmail.com  Umme Habiba Bordun Naher, Lecturer, Institute of Leather Engineering and Technology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh ;PH:+8801720054149. E-mail: nahar_ilet@yahoo.com  Md. Mahamudul Hasan, Research student, Institute of Leather Engineering and Technology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh;PH:+8801756420404,  E-mail: mahamudullpe.du@yahoo.com  Md. Amimul Islam, Research student, Institute of Leather Engineering and Technology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh ;PH: +8801689449474,  E-mail:Aminulilet.du@gmail.com Metal Contamination In Plants Due To Tannery Effluent Md. Farhad Ali, Umme Habiba Bodrun Naher, Md. Mahamudul Hasan, Md. Aminul Islam Abstract: This paper analyzes the determination of heavy metals named Chromium, Lead and Cadmium deposited in soil as well as in the plants and vegetables due to the tanning industries of the area of Hazaribagh, Dhaka. The tanneries discharge untreated tannery effluents which get mixed with the soil, water of rivers and canals in this area. The determination of metals was performed for the soil that was collected from the land adjacent to the canals which bear untreated tannery effluents. The soil is affected with the untreated effluents through the deposition of heavy metals. The metals were furthers deposited into the plants and vegetables grown on that soil. The roots stems and leaves of the plants of Jute (Corchorus capsularis) and Spinach (Basella alba) grown on that soil were analyzed for determining these metals. Extreme amount of chromium was found for plants and again Lead, Cadmium were found in higher amount in these parts of the two plants. These two plants are taken as a popular vegetables extensively. In case of soil, the amount of Chromium, Lead and Cadmium were analyzed as 87 mg/L, 0.131 mg/L and 0.190 mg/L respectively. For the roots, stems and leaves of Jute (Corchorus capsularis), the average values are 115.62 mg/L for Chromium, 11.25 mg/L for Lead and 2.27 mg/L for Cadmium respectively. Again, in case of Spinach (Basella alba), 124.42 mg/L was found for Chromium 7.38 mg/L for lead and 2.97 mg/L for Cadmium as average values for these parts of the two trees. All the observed values of metals of Chromium, Lead and Cadmium are higher than the permissible and specially for Chromium, the amount is extremely higher. Index Terms: Heavy metals, tannery effluent, contamination, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, Hazaribagh, Jute plants, ———————————————————— 1 INTRODUCTION The Tanning industry is the oldest industries in Bangladesh and about 95% of tanneries of the whole country is situated in Hazaribagh [1]. One of the largest environmental problems is the removal of chromium infected sludge formed as a by product of wastewater treatment [2]. With rain heavy metals of effluents are penetrated into the soil and are eventually translocated into plants and into man through using up of these plants [3]. Heavy metals are the steady metals whose density is larger than 4.5 g/cm 3 [4]. One heavy metal is dumped in the soil, is not disgraced and endured in the surroundings for a long time and bring serious environment contamination [5]. In 90% tanneries worldwide, Chromium compounds are utilized most often as tanning agents [6]. Plants take up heavy metals by taking up the from deposits on the parts of the plants interpretated to the air from infected environment and from impured soils [7]. Lead, Chromium and Cadmium and also other metals are non biodigradable and can undergo-global ecological successions [12]. Heavy metals may be present either as a dump on the exterior of vegetables or may be taken up by the crops roots and pierce into the edible part of plant tissue [8]. Lead is the most significant pollutant of the heavy metals and the inorganic forms are sucked up through intaking by food, water and breathing [9]. Cadmium gathers in the human body influencing adversely numerous organs like liver, kidney, lung, bones, placenta, brain and the central nervous system [10]. Declining in root growth is a well documented consequence owing to heavy metals in trees and crops [11]. In this paper, we want to determine heavy metal contamination of soil and their deposition in the plants due to untreated tannery effluents. 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1 Study Area For the analysis, the soil was collected from the area near the canals of Hazaribagh industrial area through which tannery effluents are discharged.