BIOREMEDIATION OF TEXTILE DYE EFFLUENT BY BACILLUS AND PSEUDOMONAS SPP. V. Srinivasan 1 , P. Saravana Bhavan 1 * and J. Krishnakumar 2 1 Department of Zoology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore – 641046, Tamil Nadu, India 2 PRIDE, Periyar University, Salem – 636011, Tamil Nadu, India E-mail: bhavan@buc.edu.in (*Corresponding Author) Abstract: Textile effluent is one of the known sources of pollution, which usually contain several chemicals, which contaminate the receiving water. This study was conducted to understand the ability of Bacillus sp., and Pseudomonas sp., on decolourization and normalization of other physicochemical parameters, such as odour, temperature, pH, total solids, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, total hardness, BOD, COD, calcium, magnesium and chlorine of textile dye effluent. The textile dye discharge was collected from a mill effluent outlet, Uppilipalayam, Erode, India, and subjected to biological characterization for the presence of total heterotrophic bacteria by serial dilution, and cultured on nutrient agar plates. The presence of Bacillus and Pseudomonas spp., were identified biochemically. The results indicated that Bacillus sp., have higher colour removing capacity and the ability to bring back normalcy in the physicochemical parameters of effluent than that of Pseudomonas sp. Keywords: Textile dye effluent, Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Decolourization. 1. Introduction Synthetic dyes are widely used in a number of industries, such as textile dyeing or printing, paper printing, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and leather industries. These industries consume large amounts of energy and water, and they release a substantial amount of waste water with many contaminants [1]. With the increased demand for textile products, the waste waters generated from this industry have also increased proportionally and polluting the receiving water worldwide [2]. In India, an average mill discharge is about 1.5 million litre of contaminated effluent per day, which contains several types of toxic chemicals, such as dispersants, levelling agents, acids, alkalis, carriers and various dyes. The organic dye stuffs, chrome dyes and other chemicals during various operations and produce a large quantity of solid and liquid waste containing hexavalent chromium [chromium (VI)], salts of zinc, International Journal of Science, Environment ISSN 2278-3687 (O) and Technology, Vol. 3, No 6, 2014, 2215 – 2224 Received Nov 12, 2014 * Published Dec 2, 2014 * www.ijset.net