The present study reveals that the enriched aerobic cultures of indigenous microbes can be used successfully for decolorizing dye effluents. Physico-chemical analysis of dye effluent revealed high load of pollution. Textile dye effluent and contaminated soils were collected and analyzed for selection of suitable bacteria for dye degradation. The residual bacterial load was found to be in the range of 10⁸ cfu.mL^-1. Six bacterial species viz., two species of both Bacillus and Klebsiella,, and one species of Planococcus and Micrococcus were isolated. The best two species of dye degraders namely Planococcus and Bacillus were further optimized for the effect of carbon and nitrogen source, pH, temperature and percentage of inoculums. The optimized conditions for both isolates of Planococcus sp. and Bacillus sp. were used in bio-decolorization studies of textile effluent. More than 50% of decolorization was achieved within 4 days of incubation while 80% of decolorization after 6 days. The isolates of Planococcus sp. and Bacillus sp. exhibited maximum decolorization ability at pH between 5-8 and temperature 37C. Moreover, 10% (v/v) inoculums, glucose and peptone as carbon and nitrogen sources respectively were found to be the optimum conditions for decolorization. Both those isolates showed highest decolorization percentage of Coractive Blue 3R dye effectively during optimization.

Textile effluent, Bacillus, Klebsiella, Planococcus, Micrococcus, decolorization