Status of water quality of surface water and groundwater sources in a wetland ecosystem: Insights from Vettangudi bird's sanctuary.

Ponds that serve as bird sanctuaries must be protected and kept in good condition to facilitate the wildlife's expanding population. Therefore, maintaining the pond ecosystem is crucial to achieving wildlife management goals. To achieve this goal, the present study is aim to monitor the water quality of Periya kollukudi patty (PKPTY) pond and their surrounding water sampling point Viz., open well, community pond, and borewell were located in Vettangudi Bird's Sanctuary. Physico-chemical water quality parameters of PKPTY pond water samples have more than the acceptable limit of Total Dissolved Solid (TDS)- (974.83 ppm), magnesium (100.83 mg/l), chloride (615.83 mg/l), nitrogen (578.54 mg/l) content were found. However, borewell water samples are exceeded Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standard acceptable limits compared to community pond and open well water samples respectively TDS (1458 mg/l), Calcium (101.84 mg/l), Magnesium (263.87 mg/l) Hardness (312.67 mg/l), (Chloride 506.37 mg/l), and nitrogen (406.73 mg/l) due to polluted PKPTY pond water reaches ground water table. Chemical parameters of PKPTY and borewell samples were statistically related and found with 0.1 % significant difference. Water Quality Index (WQI) of community and open well water samples were found below 25 % and attained excellent WQI. While, PKPTY water samples were achieved greater than 100 % WQI followed by borewell water samples. Hence the focus on fresh water ecosystem conservation is explored from this study.