author(s)
Sujoy Mandal, Jayanta Kumar Kundu, Partha Partim Chakravorty

abstract
Eisenia fetida, as the test specimen was exposed to two selected fungicides, carbendazim and captan, commonly used by the farmers, in natural garden soil. According to the determined LC₅₀ value of the two fungicides more toxic carbendazim was used for the cellulase enzyme activity assessment. Feeding preference experiment was carried out and they showed maximum preference for Anacardium oxidentale (Cashew) leaves. The test specimen was exposed to sub lethal doses of carbendazim, i.e. 25% of LC₅₀ value and 50% of LC₅₀ value, along with the control set. The enzyme activity measured on the 3^rd, 7^th, 15^th and 30^th day from the experiment. The enzyme activity was suppressed a little in between 7^th and 15^th day of the experiment. From the enzyme activity we can use it as a potential biomarker to detect pesticide pollution in agro ecosystem and can be further used in genotoxicity studies.