Occurrence, Abundance, and Distribution of Microplastics in the basins of Kabani River, Wayanad, Western Ghats, India: A Baseline Assessment

The large-scale production of plastics and their subsequent dispersal into water bodies have harmful impacts on aquatic environments. Despite being major manufacturers of plastic waste, developing countries have inadequate research on microplastics in freshwater ecosystems. This study examines the occurrence, abundance, and distribution of microplastic particles in the basins of the Kabani River, a region of the Western Ghats in Wayanad. The sampling was conducted at eight study stations across the Kabani River basin and analysed for microplastics using a density separation method. Identification of the microplastic particles was made using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) with Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR). The average abundance of microplastics collected from the major tributaries of the Kabani River was 0.103 ± 0.18 particles/L (median 0.0135 particles/L) during the study. Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) was the prevalent polymer collected in the samples. As Wayanad's first report on microplastic particles in the Kabani River, this study catalyzes additional investigation into the distribution and effects of this new contaminant on the biota of several aquatic systems throughout Kerala and India.