National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Environmental pollution has emerged as one of the most significant global challenges, threatening ecosystem integrity, biodiversity, and human health. Rapid industrialization, urbanization, intensive agricultural practices, mining, and improper waste disposal have resulted in the widespread release of heavy metals and other toxic contaminants into terrestrial and aquatic environments. Continuous monitoring of environmental quality is therefore essential for the effective assessment and management of polluted ecosystems. Among the various biological monitoring tools, snails have gained considerable attention as reliable bioindicators because of their sedentary nature, wide geographical distribution, high bioaccumulation capacity, and sensitivity to environmental contaminants. It discusses the biological and ecological characteristics that make snails suitable bioindicators, including their feeding behaviour, habitat specificity, physiological responses, and the ability of their digestive gland and shell to accumulate toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, copper, zinc, mercury, and chromium. The review also summarizes the mechanisms of metal uptake, bioaccumulation, detoxification through metallothionein proteins, oxidative stress responses, and histopathological alterations that serve as biomarkers of environmental contamination. Furthermore, commonly employed analytical techniques, including Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS), Inductively Coupled Plasma–Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP- OES), and Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), are highlighted for heavy metal determination in snail tissues. Recent case studies from different regions of the world demonstrate the effectiveness of snails in monitoring environmental pollution and assessing ecological health. The advantages, limitations, and future prospects of using snails as bioindicators are also critically discussed. Overall, this review emphasizes that snails provide an economical, sensitive, and scientifically reliable approach for long-term environmental monitoring and can significantly contribute to pollution assessment, ecological risk evaluation, and the development of sustainable environmental management strategies.
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