Shah M
Textile and Textile dyestuff industries discharge effluent having high Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and colour, making it difficult to treat the effluent completely. Several Physical, Chemical and Biological treatment methods are available to treat such an effluent. However, in recent year’s biological treatment with focus on bacteria have been drawing a tremendous attention due to their ability to degrade complex structured dyes and hence treat waste water. In the present study, Soil and Water samples collected from textile dye effluent contaminated sites of Ankleshwar, Gujarat was studied for screening and isolation of bacteria capable of decolorizing and degrading textile dyes. A bacterial consortium ETL-A was selected on the basis of rapid dye decolorization. Bacterial consortium exhibited 93% decolorization ability within 30 h under static conditions at 35ºC in presence of Glucose and Yeast Extract as cosubstrates. 16S rRNA gene amplification was carried out for the sequencing and identification of these strains. The degradation of dye was confirmed by HPTLC and FTIR analysis. Considerable decrease in COD of the dye (above 85%) was indicative of conversion of complex dye into simple oxidizable products.