Reactive Violet 5R (RV5R) decolorising acclimatised bacterial consortia were enriched from industrial effluent contaminated and pristine samples from Gujarat, India on several different media. Twelve acclimatised consortia were selected for the study which were able to decolorise 100 mg/L RV5R in 30 h under shaking or static conditions. Eubacterial diversity was studied by 16S rRNA gene based culture-independent methods, using HaeIII and Hinf1 enzymes for ARDRA and V3 region based DGGE analysis, forming total 6 clusters in both analysis. Decolorised end products of all the consortia were analysed by FTIR showing cleavage of the azo bond and group modifications. GC-MS data of dye decolorised end products of Gly consortium obtained from hydrocarbon contaminated soil demonstrated benzene ring cleavage activity. Present study suggests that enrichment of acclimatised consortia under different conditions can result in diverse microbial communities that differentially degrade RV5R and can provide rich source of dye decolorising strains. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.