Impact Assessment of Soil Parameters Affected by Gas Flaring in Tea Garden in Dibrugarh District of Assam, India

Abstract

The gas flare is considered as the challenging and environmental problem and hence this experiment was taken to study the physical and chemical properties of soil of tea garden effected by gas flare located in south of Kothaloni OCS in Dibrugarh district of Assam during September 2019- March 2020. The design selected was Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The soil samples were collected  from (40-50) metres, (50-60) metres, (60-70) metres, (70-80) metres and control site (150-160) metres away from the flare site in two different seasons namely autumn and rainy seasons. Soil physical parameters such as soil temperature, soil moisture ,bulk density, porosity, hydraulic conductivity and soil chemical parameters sucha as pH, organic carbon content, electrical conductivity, available nutrients (NPK) were studied. Soil temperature recorded highest (29.83°C) at distance (40-50) metres away from the gas flaring site and decreased with its increased distances from  the flaring  site while soil moisture recorded lowest (11.48%) at distance (40-50) metres which increased with far away distances from the  flaring site. Rest of the studied soil parameters viz., bulk density, porosity, hydraulic conductivity, pH, organic carbon content, electrical conductivity and available nutrients (NPK) recorded non significant variations along distances and seasons.