Earth is the most beautiful creation of God and reflects his image that makes the earth sacred. All the living and non-living things including trees, animals, mountains, river, seas, air etc. reflect the image of creator who is also the source of all life on earth. The earth gives us all that we need hence, it is our responsibility to ensure that all the things that are required for survival of living beings are available to them now and in the future. In order to fulfill his greed, modern man is polluting, wasting, and degrading the earth. In these days, earth is crying because of disrespectful lifestyle and limitless growth and development activities. Global warming and other forms of climate changes are thus a major concern for all of us today.
In present times due to rapid industrialization and urbanization environmental pollution has become the biggest menace for the survival of living beings. Pollution may be of air, water, soil or sound. Over exploitation of open spaces, ever-increasing number of automobiles and demographic pressure has further aggravated the problem. There are various ways and means to mitigate the environmental pollution. But planting thousands of trees across the world is one of the biggest and cheapest ways to control pollution. While selecting the plant species for pollution control some important characteristics could be considered like plants should be evergreen, large leaved, rough bark, indigenous, ecologically compatible, low water requirement, minimum care, high absorption of pollutants, resistant pollutants, agro-climatic suitability, height and spread, canopy architecture, growth rate and habit, pollution tolerance and dust scavenging capacity.
Modern research has proved that trees such as Tamarind (Tamarindus indicus) having smaller compound leaves are generally more efficient particle collectors than larger leaves. Similarly, the shape of leaves of Mango (Mangifera indica), Ashoka (Polyalthea longifolia), Pongamia (Derris indica) and Umbrella (Thespepsia populnea) trees captured higher amounts of dust as compared to other plants. Trees like Neem (Azadirchta indica), Silk cotton (Bombax ceiba), Indian laburnum (Cassia fistula), Gulmohar (Delonix regia), Pipal (Ficus religiosa), Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia), Indian lilac (Lagerstroemia indica), Pagoda tree (Plumeria alba), Java plum (Syzygium cumini) have found more suitable in urban environment. Scientists from China on the basis of their study suggested that, plant species, that could remove atmospheric dust efficiently are Koelreuteria paniculata, Ulmus pumila, Syringa oblata, Malus micromalu, Weigela florida, Ailanthus altissima, Salix babylonica, Robinia pseudoacacia, Ligustrum x vicaryi, Euonymus japonicas etc. it is also found that, Chaenomeles speciosa is the best species for metal Cd phytoremediation, Sorbaria kirilowii and Syringa oblata are the best species for Cr pollution remedy whilst best species identified for other metals are Sophora japonica for both Cu and Fe, Ligustrum × vicaryi and Rosa chinensis for Mn, Prunus cerasifera f. atropurpurea for Ni, Populus beijingensis for Pb, and Populus tomentosa for Zn.
Source
Liu Y., Yang Z., Zhu M., Yin J. 2017. Role of Plant Leaves in Removing Airborne Dust and Associated Metals on Beijing Roadsides. Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 17: 2566–2584, doi: 10.4209/aaqr.2016.11.0474