In today’s scenario, heavy metal pollution has become one of the global problems to be dealt with, owing to rapid industrial growth, intensive agriculture and high population rate. The major challenge lies in feeding the overly populated country which creates more dependency on the use of fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and manures etc., to increase the crop yields. Use of agro chemicals coupled with waste water irrigation has resulted in rapid deterioration of soil quality due to over accumulation of heavy metals which are non degradable and persist for longer time in soils. Soil pollution by heavy metals is a significant environmental problem worldwide. Concentration of these heavy metals in soil has increased drastically over the last three decades, posing high risk to the environment and human health. Not only does a metal contaminated soil have a negative effect on plant growth and yield but it also poses severe threat to bioaccumulation of toxic metals in food chain and soil biological activity. Remediation methods used for heavy metal soil cleanup include physical, chemical and biological or a combination of these techniques to remove/ reduce/stabilize heavy metals in soil. Hence, cleanup of heavy metal contaminated soils is of prime concern and different techniques like immobilization, soil washing and bioremediation are known to be the best technologies for removing the contaminants in soils of most developed countries. Most recent step towards reduction of metal pollution in soils is the use of organic amendments and adoption of phytoremediation techniques which are cost effective, environment friendly and improve soil health. Use of organic amendments like farmyard manure, biochar, vermicompost and inorganic materials like lime, zeolites, iron oxides etc., reduce the metal mobility and bioavailability in soils. A combination of two or more of these soil amendments can be used to increase the efficiency of remediation process. This review paper presents possible sources of heavy metal pollution, their effect on soil health with appropriate remedial measures described in length.

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