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Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa

In the imperial Gazetteer of India 1878, Pusa was recorded as a government estate of about 1350 acres in Darbhanba. It was acquired by East India Company for running a stud farm to supply better breed of horses mainly for the army. Frequent incidence of glanders disease (swelling of glands), mostly affecting the valuable imported bloodstock made the civil veterinary department to shift the entire stock out of Pusa. A British tobacco concern Beg Sutherland & co. got the estate on lease but it also left in 1897 abandoning the government estate of Pusa. Lord Mayo, The Viceroy and Governor General, had been repeatedly trying to get through his proposal for setting up a directorate general of Agriculture that would take care of the soil and its productivity, formulate newer techniques of cultivation, improve the quality of seeds and livestock and also arrange for imparting agricultural education. The government of India had invited a British expert. Dr. J. A. Voelcker who had submitted as report on the development of Indian agriculture. As a follow-up action, three experts in different fields were appointed for the first time during 1885 to 1895 namely, agricultural chemist (Dr. J. W. Leafer), cryptogamic botanist (Dr. R. A. Butler) and entomologist (Dr. H. Maxwell Lefroy) with headquarters at Dehradun (U.P.) in the forest Research Institute complex. Surprisingly, until now Pusa, which was destined to become the centre of agricultural revolution in the country, was lying as before an abandoned government estate. In 1898. Lord Curzon took over as the viceroy. A widely traveled person and an administrator, he salvaged out the earlier proposal and got London’s approval for the appointment of the inspector General of Agriculture to which the first incumbent Mr. J. Mollison (Dy. Director of Agriculture, Bombay) joined in 1901 with headquarters at Nagpur The then government of Bengal had mooted in 1902 a proposal to the centre for setting up a model cattle farm for improving the dilapidated condition of the livestock at Pusa estate where plenty of land, water and feed would be available, and with Mr. Mollison’s support this was accepted in principle. Around Pusa, there were many British planters and also an indigo research centre Dalsing Sarai (near Pusa). Mr. Mollison’s visits to this mini British kingdom and his strong recommendations. In favour of Pusa as the most ideal place for the Bengal government project obviously caught the attention for the viceroy.

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20201
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Subject: Microbiology × Author: Behera, Dhrupad Kumar × Start date: 1983 × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development of effective microbial consortia for secondary treatment of wastewater
    (DRPCAU, Pusa, 2020) Behera, Dhrupad Kumar; Jaiswal, Aman
    Naturally occurring bacteria present in the wastewaters have a massive potential to solve the problem of wastewater bio-remediation. These bacteria with biodegrading capabilities can be exploited to develop a consortium and can be used for efficient biological treatment of the wastewaters. In the present study, 20 bacterial strains were isolated from the dairy industry, sugar industry and hostel sewage water of Pusa campus from the state of Bihar and were screened for starch, protein and fat degradation and reduction Biological Oxygen Demand and Chemical Oxygen Demand. Out of the total 20 isolates, 18 isolates exhibited starch degradation, 10 exhibited protein degradation and 11 reported positive for the fat degradation. Among all these isolates, only 7 isolates (DS-13, DS-27, DS-57, DS-58, DS-67, DS-68, and DS-72) were found positive for all three degradation activities which were further screened for BOD and COD reduction. Out of the 7 isolates, only 3 isolates (DS-58, DS-67 and DS-72) showed higher reduction in both BOD and COD parameters when inoculated into autoclaved effluents i.e. dairy, sugar industry and hostel sewage as compared to the blank i.e., un-autoclaved effluents without inoculation of bacterial isolates which were recorded BOD 835 mg/L, 1035mg/L and 620mg/L and COD 1680 mg/L, 2280 mg/L and 1470 mg/L for the dairy, sugar industry and hostel sewage effluent respectively. Therefore, these 3 isolates were combined in different combinations and 4 different consortia were prepared and their biodegradation and BOD and COD reduction abilities were analysed. The consortium C4 (DS-58, DS-67 and DS-72) showed highest results in starch (14 mm), protein (24 mm) and fat (18 mm) degradation and BOD (115 to 353 mg/L) and COD (407 to 641 mg/L) reduction which was used further in the developed formulation. A total 10 liquid formulations were developed using several combinations of emulsifier (Tween 20), thickener (Acacia gum and CMC) and protective agents (PVP and glycerol) and stored at three different temperatures (40C, 280C and 400C) and characterized for physiological stability viz. pH and suspensibility and cell count at an interval of 30 days up to 180 days. In the case of pH, it was found that most of the formulations showed a slow fall in pH with increasing time of incubation. At 4ºC, the pH varied between 4.72 and 7.0 among different formulations during 6 months of incubation and formulations F7 and F8 were found most stable in terms of pH where the pH changes were of very less magnitude over time. At 280 C, the pH range was 4.74 to 7.0 and formulations F6 and F5 were found to be most stable whereas, at 400 C, the pH range was 4.71 to 7.0 and formulations F7 and F 8 were found to be most stable. In the case of Suspensibility, the width of suspension was inconstant and fluctuated from 0 to 1.2 cm between different formulations across different temperatures. Initially, it increased with increase in incubation period till 4 months and later decreased with further increase in the incubation period and became stable irrespective of the type of formulations at all the three stored temperatures. The reduction observed was comparatively more at a higher temperature of 400C than at a lower temperature of 40C. In case of the cell population, as compared to initial cell population of 6.8 x 107 cells/ ml that was added to each formulation, all formulations maintained a cell population of 2.6 x 107 to 5 x 107 cells/ ml after 6 months of incubation across all the stored temperature. It was also observed that the decline was also observed which was less during the early incubation period and decreased on further storage. After 6 months of incubation, F7 maintained maximum cell population of 5 x 107 cells/ml followed by F5 and F8 at 40C whereas, at 280C, formulation F6 and F8 maintained maximum cell population of 4.8 x 107 cells/ml followed by F4 which was 3.7 x 107 cells/ml. At 400C, formulation F8 and F7 maintained maximum cell population of 4.0 x 107 cells/ml closely followed by formulation F6 (3.7 x 107 cells/ml) after 6 months of incubation. It was found that formulation F10 i.e. formulation in which pH was not adjusted and no protective agents were added and only mixed cultures were inoculated showed minimum cell population at the end of six months at all the stored temperatures of 40C, 280C and 400C respectively. It was also observed that those formulations where the mixture of protective agents was used showed higher cell count as compared to those formulations where protective agents used as alone. The results suggested that this liquid formulation of consortium be able to play a significant part in the biological treatment of wastewater and help in reducing water pollution.