Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2017) 6(12): 535-542 535 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.612.065 Exploration of NPK Activity Showing Chromium Resistant Bacteria from Sukinda Mining Area S. Pattnaik 1 , D. Dash 2 and D.P. Samantaray 1* 1 Department of Microbiology, 2 Department of Botany, CBSH, OUAT, Bhubaneswar-3, Odisha-751003, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Rapid industrialization coupled with exponential increase in use of toxic chemicals and mining activities has not only resulted in global environmental deterioration, but also has drawn attention of scientists for an effective measure to control pollution. The Sukinda mining zone, Odisha is one of the chromium contaminated area due to chromite mining since more than four decades. As a matter of fact, the flora, fauna along with human population of the mining area are adversely affected due to Cr (VI) pollution (Mishra et al., 2010). Moreover, mining activities are major causes of soil texture transformation and with its biomagnification decreases crop productivity in adjoining farming land (Tripathi et al., 2012, Upadhyaa et al., 2017). Chromium is a priority pollutant (Mishra et al., 2010) and generally stable in the form of Cr(VI) and Cr(III) in nature. Cr(VI) compounds are highly toxic due to their solubility in water, permeability through cell membranes and subsequently affect protein and nucleic acids of the biological systems as compared to Cr(III) (Wuana and Okieimen, 2011; Sultan and Hasnain, 2005). In addition, Cr(VI) is a well-known mutagenic (Gili et al., 2002) and carcinogenic (Codd et al., 2003) International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 12 (2017) pp. 535-542 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The goal of the study is to explore potential chromium resistant and nitrogen fixing, phosphate & potassium solubilizing bacteria from Sukinda mining area for bioremediation of Cr (VI) contaminated soil. In toto 25 bacteria were isolated, among them 14 isolates showed resistance to hexavalent chromium. Moreover, bacterial isolates such as Paenibacillus sp. CTSI-01, Micrococcus sp. CTWI-03 and Enterobacter sp. CTWI-06 were able to tolerate 3500ppm of Cr (VI) concentration. The bacterial isolates were affiliated to the genus such as Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Brevibacillus, Acinetobacter, Enterobacter, Micrococcus and Staphylococcus by morpho-physiological characterizations. Interestingly, amongst 14 chromium resistant bacteria, three isolates such as Micrococcus sp. CTSI-06, Enterobacter sp. CTWI-06 and Acinetobacter sp. CTWI-07 depicted nitrogen fixation, phosphate and potassium solubilization capability as revealed from solubility index. Thus, these potential chromium resistant and NPK activity showing locally isolated bacterial strains may be used for detoxification of Cr (VI) as well as to increase nutrient availability of chromium contaminated soils. Keywords Hexavalent chromium, Morpho- physiological, Solubility index, Detoxification. Accepted: 07 October 2017 Available Online: 10 December 2017 Article Info