International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 10, October 2014 1 ISSN 2250-3153 www.ijsrp.org Physico – Chemical Analysis of Paper Industry Effluents in Jammu city (J&K) Angelika Sharma * , Anu Ramotra ** , and H.S. Sehgal *** * Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Central University of Jammu (India) ** M.Sc. Environmental sciences, IV Semester Student, Central University of Jammu (India) *** HOD, Department of Environmental Sciences, Central University of Jammu (India) Abstract- Physico- Chemical Characteristics of Paper Industry Effluents located in Bari Bramana, District Samba, Jammu and Kashmir,were analyzed for the parameters such as pH, Turbidity, Total suspended solids, Total dissolved solids and Electrical conductivity for treated as well as untreated effluents. Of all parameters Turbidity and Total Suspended solids for both treated and untreated effluents were above the permissible limits. Index Terms- Effluents, Pulp and Paper mills, Total dissolved solids , Total suspended solids. I. INTRODUCTION an has been using the natural resources since beginning of civilization .The primitive man was totally depend on natural resources for his existence. With the increase in population, the over exploitation of the resources led to its destruction (Kuzhali,2012) . Many of the industries are totally depend on natural resources for their raw material. This over dependence is the cause of various environmental problems such as pollution of land, water, and air. Pollution refers to an undesirable changes in the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of our environment namely; air, water, and soil(Kuzhali,2012). Industrial waste resulting from all manufacturing industries are a major cause of air, water, and land pollution. Among the 17 most polluting industries identified by MOEF (ministry of environment and forests) , paper industry is one amongst them. The pulp and paper industry is one of the oldest industries in our country . But there has been a tremendous expansion in this industry during the last 25 years (Gupta., 2013) Paper mill is a major industrial sector utilizing a huge amount of ligno- cellulosic materials and water during the manufacturing process, and release chlorinated lingo sulphonic acids, chlorinated resin acids, chlorinated phenols and chlorinated hydrocarbons in the effluents(Chopra and Kumar, 2011). The making of the paper requires large amount of water which is used at various stages such as wood preparation, pulping, pulp washing, screening, washing, bleaching and coating operations. Among these processes, pulping especially chemical pulping generates a high strength of waste water .Such waste water having high COD and BOD values which disturbs the ecological balance of the environment, so paper making is water intensive process . India has 550 paper mills currently which use waste paper as a raw material. The demand for the paper and paperboard by the year 2006-07 in India was 3.8 million tons/year and 4.9 million tons/year at the end of year 2010references. The present recovery and utilization of waste paper by paper mills in India is 3.0 million tonnes annually, which translates to a recovery of 27% of the total paper and paper board consumed. This recovery rate is very low as compared to other developed nations like Germany-73%, Sweden-69%, Japan-60%, Western Europe-56%, USA-49%, and Italy-45%same (Indian Paper Manufactures Associations (IPMA), 2010). Due to inadequate availability of indigenous waste paper, India mills rely heavily on imported waste paper to meet the raw material demand. According to an estimate, the import of waste paper has increased from 5.1 million USD in 1980 to one billion USD in 2011. India imports around 4.0 million tonnes of waste paper annually which is about 57% of its requirements (Indian Paper Manufactures Associations (IPMA), 2010), II. METHODOLOGY 2.1 collection of samples The effluents was collected in previously cleaned plastic containers . These effluents was collected from Jammu paper mills located in Bari Brahmana sector(SIDCO complex), district Jammu ,India, at a distance of about 5 km from central university of Jammu. Bari Brahmana (SIDCO complex) is located at 32⁰38`38.5”N and 74⁰ 54`19.5”E(fig.1) the sampling was carried for APRIL month ,2014. The collected samples was analyzed for physico-chemical characteristics by using the standard methods. M