Recent Scientific Perspectives on the Indian Hydrogeology

Abstract

The hydrogeology of India represents one of the diverse systems in the world. The hydrologically distinct Himalayan highlands and its foreland basins with deposits of indo-Ganga Brahmaputra system gradually merges with the cratonic provinces of central and south India, fluvioaeolian deposits of west and the basaltic province of the Deccan plateau. The tremendous socio economic significance of groundwater in India can be appreciated by the fact that about 62 % of water used in irrigation, about 85 percent of rural water supply and more than 50 % of urban water consumption is extracted from aquifers.The acute over-exploitation of groundwater resources in some parts of India, deterioration in groundwater quality both from geogenic and anthropogenic sources, declining well yield, the quest for sustainable use of groundwater resource and the need to map and understand the aquifer system have acted as stimulus for researchers throughout India. The paper deals with a brief introduction of Indian hydrogeology and reviewed the huge volume of researches carried out in the recent past under nine sub themes representing the rainbow of groundwater research in India.