RESEARCH ARTICLE Ecological restoration of coal fly ash–dumped area through bamboo plantation Raushan Kumar 2 & Mohan Manu Thangaraju 1 & Manoj Kumar 2 & Sanjog Tarachand Thul 1 & Vimal Chandra Pandey 3 & Swati Yadav 1 & Lal Singh 1 & Sunil Kumar 1 Received: 18 June 2020 /Accepted: 11 February 2021 # The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature 2021 Abstract The present study entails the phytoremediation potential of different bamboo species on 5-year-old FA-dumped site near Koradi thermal power plant of Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. The selected FA-dumped site was treated with farmyard manure, press mud, and bio fertilizer followed by plantation of six promising species of bamboo namely Bambusa balcooa Roxb., Dendrocalamus stocksii (Munro.) M. Kumar, Remesh and Unnikrishnan, Bambusa bambos (L.) Voss, Bambusa wamin E.G. Camus, Bambusa vulgaris var. striata (Lodd. ex Lindl.) Gamble, and Bambusa vulgaris var. vittata Riviere and Riviere. The experimental results indicated that the organic input in the FA-dumped site nourished the soil by improving its physico-chemical, and biological characteristics. The results revealed the contamination of the site with different trace elements in varied quantity including Cr (89.29 mg kg -1 ), Zn (84.77 mg kg -1 ), Ni (28.84 mg kg -1 ), Cu (22.91 mg kg -1 ), Li (19.65 mg kg -1 ), Pb (13.47 mg kg -1 ), and Cd (2.35 mg kg -1 ). A drastic reduction in concentration of heavy metals in FA was observed after 1 year of bamboo plantation as compared to the initial condition. The results showed that bamboo species are good excluders of Ba, Co, Cr, Li, Ni, Mn, and Zn, whereas they are good accumulators of Cd, Pb, and Cu. The values of biochemical parameters, such as pH, total chlorophyll, ascorbic acid (AA), and relative water content of all the bamboo leaves ranged from 5.11–5.70, 1.56-6.33 mg g -1 , 0.16- 0.19 mg g -1 , and 60.23–76.68%, respectively. It is thereby concluded that the bamboo plantation with biofertilizers and organic amendments may indicate adaptive response to environmental pollution on FA-dumped site. Keywords Bamboo . Bioconcentration factor . Translocation factor . Fly ash dumped site . Heavy metals . Phytoremediation . Total chlorophyll . Ascorbic acid Introduction Fly ash (FA) as an industrial waste has been completely changed from a “hazardous waste” as useful “Resource Material” (Yadav and Fulekar 2018). This is accomplished due to the technological advancements followed by initiatives and innovations. There are several applications of coal-based FA majorly in construction and related sectors. The utilization of FA has been increasing from 66.6 million tonnes (MTs) in 2008–2009 to 132 MTs in 2017–2018. In the year 2017– 2018, the overall utilization of FA in various applications was 67%. Currently in India, 38.67% of FA is utilized in the construction sector for various modes like 25.60% in cement, 9.01% in bricks and tiles, 3.40% in roads and flyovers, and 0.66% in concrete. Apart from this, 10.48% of FA is used in reclamation of low-lying area; 6.9% in ash dyke raising, 6.37% in mines backfilling, 0.66% in concrete, and 0.29% in agriculture (Alam and Akhtar 2011; CEA 2019). In spite of the utilization of coal FA in different sectors, large quantities of FA remain unutilized and dumped in FA dumping sites. It is likely that 40% of the total FA is unutilized and directly disposed off in landfill that covers about 65,000 Responsible Editor: Elena Maestri * Lal Singh lalsingh@neeri.res.in * Sunil Kumar s_kumar@neeri.res.in 1 CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nehru Marg, Nagpur, Maharashtra 440 020, India 2 Department of Environmental Sciences, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, Jharkhand 835 205, India 3 Department of Environmental Sciences, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226 025, India https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12995-7 / Published online: 27 February 2021 Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2021) 28:33416–33432 Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.