BIOREMEDIATION OF HAZARDOUS POLLUTANTS USING FUNGI

Use of chemicals in industrial processes, agricultural practices, nuclear experiments and various areas of our daily lives result in the release of potential toxic chemicals into the environment either on purpose or by accident. Chemicals that are known to pollute the environment include heavy metals, drugs, hydrocarbons, halogenated solvents, endocrine disrupting agents and agricultural chemicals. After their release, these pollutants are transported through the soil, atmosphere and water sources polluting them, thus posing a serious problem for survival of mankind. In the past, traditional method of disposing hazardous pollutants was by digging a hole and filling it with waste material but this method of waste disposal was difficult to continue due to lack of new places to dump. Many physical and chemical based technologies for waste disposal like high-temperature incineration and chemical decomposition methods have evolved in the years. Though these techniques were very effective at reducing a wide range of contaminants, at the same time they had several drawbacks like being complex in nature, uneconomical, and were not easily accepted by the public. Thus focus was shifted towards using modern day bioremediation process as a suitable alternative. Bioremediation is a microorganism mediated transformation or degradation of contaminants into nonhazardous or less