Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals in Soil and Water: (Turning Flowers and Green Landscapes into Living Environmental Clean-Up Tools)

Krishna Kaushik, Manish Kumar, Kushal Chaturvedi, Kedar Mahadev Gheware,
Devanshu Shukla and Abhay Vedwan

Due to increased industrialization, urbanization, mining operations, wastewater irrigation, and overuse of agrochemicals, heavy metal poisoning of soil and water has become a major global environmental and agricultural concern. Lead, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, mercury, and nickel are examples of persistent, non-biodegradable, and bioaccumulative toxic metals that pose major threats to human safety, crop productivity, and ecosystem health. According to recent global assessments, heavy metal pollution affects a large percentage of freshwater systems and agricultural land, including some areas of India. A sustainable, economical, and environmentally beneficial substitute for traditional mechanical and chemical remediation techniques is phytoremediation, a plant-based remediation technology. The concepts and processes of phytoremediation, such as phytoextraction, phytostabilization, and rhizofiltration, are reviewed in this article with a focus on the function of aquatic, flowering, decorative, and fruit plants. In contaminated habitats, species like water hyacinth, marigold, chrysanthemum, gladiolus, Indian mustard, sunflower, and Typha have shown a great deal of promise for heavy metal uptake and stability. Contaminated sites can be converted into useful green spaces that boost biodiversity, improve environmental quality, and increase aesthetics by combining phytoremediation with floriculture and landscape management. The essay emphasizes phytoremediation as a viable green technique for sustainable soil and water management by highlighting current data, case studies, and useful considerations.