www.ijapbc.com IJAPBC – Vol. 3(2), Apr-Jun, 2014 ISSN: 2277 - 4688 341 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN PHARMACY, BIOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY Research Article ABSTRACT Industrialization, on medical and agricultural practices, mining and smelting of metalliferous ores, disposal of sewage along with careless biodegradation methodologies had led to accumulation of harmful waste products, including heavy metal toxicity in soil. This environmental disturbance can be a threat to animal as well as human life on earth. Among the various bioremediation strategies , phytoremediation was accepted as an approved measure to remove toxic heavy metals making the remediated soil fit for agricultural purposes. A pot culture experiment was designed to test the effects of vermicompost on plants growing in gold mine tailings. The addition of vermicompost to tailings increased the shoot growth of the selected species, Vetiveria zizanioides. The most significant increase in growth for the selected species was obtained at 1.25% of vermicompost amendment. These preliminary results suggest that vermicompost has potential as a tailings amendment for revegetation of the gold mine site. With compost amendment, Vetiveria zizanioides has good potential as a native species for phytostabilization of mine tailings in semiarid environment. Key words: Bioremediation, gold mine tailings, vermicompost, Vetiveria zizanioides. INTRODUCTION Kolar Gold Fields is a town in the Kolar District of Karnataka state, India. Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) was one of the major gold mines in India and was considered the world's second deepest gold mine. After almost 2,000 years of gold mining, and three centuries of great importance, the mines were closed a few years ago. Krishna and Gejji 1 have highlighted the environmental pollution being caused by the dumping of the mill tailing (sand) in the Kolar gold mines area. About 32 million tonnes of this sand, which makes up the 15 dumps spread out along 8-km long distance in the mine area. These sands have been causing considerable environmental health hazards to the people of the Kolar gold field. Major constituents of sand in the Kolar gold mines area are Calcium oxide, Silica, Aluminium oxide, Ferrous oxide ,Magnesium oxide etc along with heavy metals like Arsenic and lead. Parts of the tailings contain pyrite, which oxidizes creating acidity and a corresponding release of metals into the environment. Wind and water can physically move tailings off-site causing contamination of adjacent areas. Establishing a vegetation layer decreases oxidation and prevents erosion of the tailings. . It has been suggested that low nutrient levels, low water availability, metal toxicity, acidity and poor physical structure all prevent plant growth on this site 2 . Phytoremediation has gained popularity in the past 10 years. This popularity is based in part on the relatively low cost of phytoremediation 3 . It is plant based technique which can be applied at the contaminated site. Biological processes by vermin- composting converts vegetable waste to useful organic fertilizer . Vermicomposting can be carried Effect of Vermicompost amendment to Goldmine Tailings on Growth of Vetiveria zizanioides Navya Laxman#, Preetha Nair*#, Radha D.Kale Department of Biotechnology, 58, Palace Road, Mount Carmel College, Bangalore-560052, India. # Authors have equally contributed .