'Quantitative analysis of marine pollution need of the hour'

Quantitative analysis of organic and inorganic pollution, and their impact on coastal environment is the need of the hour, Randhir Mukhopadhay, Chief Scientist of National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) said.
"It is a delicate job, and building human capacity in this specialised subject of coastal and marine pollution in the entire northern Indian Ocean region is an extremely challenging, yet utmost important responsibility. What we need now is, not qualitative but quantitative analysis of pollutants," Mukherjee, who is also head of Human Resource Management, said.
Dr Mukhopadhay was speaking on the sidelines of training by Goa-based CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) on 'Advanced Analytical Instrumentation Techniques and their application in environmental field' for Maharashtra Pollution Control Board officers.

NIO has so far been organizing lecture-based and hands-on training program for various organisations within India and beyond, and we need to make it more broad based, so that concerned authorities and institutions in the region can take advantage of our effort, he said.
He said the current training would be held in two batches for total 20 personnel from August 1-12, 2016.
Senior Scientist Mahua Saha said directly dealing with pollution control board is a very important thing.

"State control boards are mandated to control pollution. We can share our ideas, observations and solutions with them. We are already doing such kind of work with Goa Pollution Control Board," she said.

Saha said NIO has several sophisticated analytical instrument to characterize pollutants, including DNA fingerprinting mechanism to determine the source of such pollutants.
Another senior scientist, Durbar Ray said enabling the pollution control board officials to analyse all kind of pollution would go in a big way as they are empowered to take legal action against the violators.
"Also there is a scope for improvisation of the protocol and standard operating procedure that we follow. This is a quantitative analysis and it requires minute perfection. Once every state start taking care of their coast, the goal will be achieved," Mukhopadhay said.

He said similar training could be arranged for other State pollution control board officials and technicians.
"NIO labs have always been open for such initiatives, and NIO is ready to share its resources with them," he added.