ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY IN INDIA - PROSPECTS AND CASE-STUDIES

The emergence and acceptance of the concept of sustainable development warrants that the scope of environmental biotechnology be enlarged to address issues like environmental monitoring, restoration of environm ental quality, urce/residue/waste-recovery/utilization/treatment, and substitution of the non-renewable resource base with renewable resourc es. This paper delineates the current and prospective applications in these sub-areas of environmental biotechnology, and documents case stu dies on environmental monitoring (enteric viruses), restoration of env ironmental quality (oil spill remediation), resource recovery (hydroca rbon recovery from oily sludges, biosurfactants from distillery spentw ash, desulphurization of coal & sour gases), and substitution of non-r enewable resources with renewables (conversion of lignocellulosics int o value added chemicals).