Abstract
Soil being the most heterogeneous and complex microbial habitat on earth exceeds the quantity of inhabiting microbial communities than other environments. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) based metagenomics provides us directs access to the uncultivated genomes. In this study, we targeted two very popular tea gardens of Darjeeling hills- Makaibari (Mak) and Castleton (Cas). The main difference between them is the type of manure they use. Mak is solely an organic tea garden using all organic manure and fertilizers whereas Cas uses inorganic pesticides and fertilizers. The main aim was to compare the effect of organic manure over chemical fertilizers on the soil microbiome as well as the health of tea garden workers. We have performed the 16s metagenomics analysis based on V3-V4 region. Downstream bioinformatics analysis including Reverse Ecology was performed. We found that the overall microbial diversity is higher in Mak rather than Cas. Moreover, the use of organic manure has reduced the population of pathogenic bacteria in Mak soil when compared to Cas soil thus having an indirect effect on the heath of the tea garden workers. From the observations made through the metagenomics analysis of Mak and Cas soil samples we may propose that the application of organic manure supports the population of good bacteria in the soil which eventually can have a better impact on the tea garden workers.
Violence against Children in Tea Garden Areas of North Bengal
