COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EFFECTS OF HEAVY METAL(CD) ON CHLOROPHYLL CONTENT OF DIFFERENT RICE (ORYZA SATIVA.L) VARIETIES (IR.36 & LAGHU) FROM LOWER GANGETIC BASIN OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Rice is the principal cereal as well as cash crop of India, and India is also the land of rice variety. Thousands of indigenous or traditional & high yielding varieties are remain in agricultural practice. These are diverse to their yields, phsio-morphological characters as well as stress tolerance property. Now a days heavy metal ( Cd,Pb etc. ) stress is a burning problem to both agricultural & non-agricultural plants. Out of different morpho metric & physiological effects, Chlorosis (i.e. Iack of synthesis or accumulation of adequate amount of chlorophyll ) is one of the visible symptom of heavy metal stress. IR-36 a very popular and high yielding rice variety developed by IRRI & ‘Laghu' a traditional but low yielding & low nutritional requirement rice variety (most appropriately land race) of West Bengal are artificially treated with heavy metal cadmium (Cd). Then chlorophyll was extracted from this salt treated as well as controlled rice plant and analysed chlorophyll content by using Arnon (1949) method. Result Indicate Laghu is more heavy metal stress tolerant than highy yiealding variety IR 36 in this regard (i.e. Chlorophyll Content).