Idol immersion and its adverse impact on water quality and plankton community in Hooghly (Ganges) River Estuary, India: Implications for conservation management

Deterioration of water quality due to high turbidity (11.87 +/- 1.13 NTU) and biochemical oxygen demand (1.66 +/- 0.38 mg l(-1)) coupled with low chlorophyll (chl a) (0.94 +/- 0.15 mgm(-3)) during immersion has been recorded. Decreasing trend of numerical density for loricate ciliate tintinnid (microzooplankton) [post-immersion (224152 cells l(-1)) > pre-immersion (144 +/- 36 cells l(-1)) > immersion (85 +/- 30 cells l(-1))] and phytoplankton [post-immersion (2745 +/- 912 cells l(-1)) > pre-immersion (2337 +/- 441 cells l(-1)) > immersion (1660 +/- 334 cells l(-1))] was evident.