Vetiver Grass Environmental Model for Rehabilitation of Iron Overburden Soil: An Ecosystem Service Approach

Mine tailings expose the earth crust to environmental contamination necessitating to fix the metal and metalloid contaminants in the over burden soil, and rehabilitation of spoil dumps. The use of plants to stabilize and inactivate the potentially toxic compounds in such soil could be an effective low cost green technology. However, for its sustainable implementation necessary prerequisites are required that address collateral components of contamination of native environment, including contamination per se, physical soil degradation onsite and dispersal of particulate matter in the surrounding environment. A plant type that phytostabilizes the contaminants in the root zone with least translocation to shoot to avoid their recycling in the atmosphere, and morphological characteristics to physically stabilize the degraded soil to combat dispersion of its particulate matter, coupled with utilization of shoot zone for economic harvest, could help facilitate sustainability of such phyto-technology. Based on a case study of iron ore mine spoil dumps, it is suggested that selection of suitable genotypes of vetiver grass would not only minimize the toxicity level of iron in such soil, but also stabilize the degraded soil owing to high soil binding property of web forming roots. Utilization of aboveground biomass as safe fodder would ensure renewability and sustainability of such eco-plantations. The absorbed metal does not incur any genetic damage to shoots.