Microbial Diversity and Water Quality Index in Temple Ponds of Udupi District, Karnataka, India

Microbes in freshwater quite often change its quality and render it unfit for human use. Among these, planktonic algae play a major role. The Canadian Council of Ministers of the environment (CCME) formulated a water quality index (WQI) to facilitate evaluation of surface water quality for protection of aquatic life with specific guidelines. It includes scope (F1), frequency (F2), and amplitude (F3), with a table of values ranging between 0 and 100 determining nature of the index. This index was applied to four temple ponds of Udupi district and the surface water in all four was characterized as poor (values ranged between 37 and 40). According to the index the water quality is almost always endangered. The conditions usually deviate from normal levels. The reasons for this is the variation in total acidity, dissolved oxygen, free carbon dioxide and the overgrowth of bacteria. About 17 algal species and 7 fungal species occurred in these ponds. The reasons for the varied conditions may be attributed to the fluctuation of the number of the devotees visiting the ponds during festival seasons.