a b s t r a c t Textile dying and manufacturing industries are polluting valuable water resources and treatment of tex-tile dye containing effluent needs a lot of scientific scrutiny. In the present study efficient decolorization of textile industry effluent containing disperse dye Scarlet RR was achieved by a developed bacterial-yeast consortium BL-GG within 48 h with 68 and 74% reduction in BOD and COD values respectively, while the same consortium decolorized the solution containing single dye Scarlet RR (50 mg l −1) within 18 h (pH 9.0, 40 • C, static condition) with 98% reduction in color. The possible enzymes involved in decol-orization of Scarlet RR have been monitored, which suggested the active role of veratryl alcohol oxidase, laccase, tyrosinase and NADH-DCIP reductase during dye decolorization. HPLC, FTIR analysis of treated and untreated effluent confirmed the biotransformation of dyes mixture. A possible fate of metabolism of Scarlet RR by developed consortium and individual microorganisms have been proposed using GC–MS analysis in which different metabolites of Scarlet RR were obtained in respective cultures. Significant mineralization of intact dye molecule was attained by developed consortium system within short time span when compared with individual cultures.