GROUNDWATER IS MORE SUSTAINABLE THAN SURFACE WATER IN INDIA!

Dr. R. Jagadiswara Rao

Professor of Geology Retired, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh 517502, India

Email: rjagadiswara@gmail.com; Mobile: +91-944-018-4012 & +91-986-693-6499

Based on the factual data collected by three premier Central Government Organisations summarised

below, I conclude that groundwater is more sustainable than surface water in India.

WORK OF THE CENTRAL GROUND WATER BOARD (CGWB):

According to the CGWB, the annual replenishable groundwater resources of India as on 31 March 2009

was obtained as 431.03 billion cubic metres (bcm) by summing up recharge from rainfall and other

sources in monsoon and non-monsoon seasons. Annual groundwater draft was obtained as 243.32 bcm

by summing up draft from irrigation and domestic/industrial uses. On subtracting one figure from the

other, the unutilised groundwater is obtained as 187.71 bcm (Table 1). For the purpose of calculating

the stage of groundwater, the CGWB has recognised a portion of unutilised groundwater as “Natural

discharge during non-monsoon season” for adding to the groundwater draft. The stage of groundwater

development given in Table 1 is obtained as the percent groundwater draft for all uses to the annual

groundwater available. As such, their values are a little lower than those obtained by the CGWB.

TABLE 1: STATE-WISE GROUND WATER RESOURCES (GW) AVAILABILITY, UTILIZATION

AND STAGE OF GROUNDWATER DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

(States arranged in the order of decreasing stage of GW development)

(http://cgwb.gov.in/documents/Dynamic%20GW%20Resources%20-2009.pdf)

State/Union Territory Annual GW

available (bcm)

GW Draft for all

uses (bcm)

Unused GW

(bcm)1

Stage of GW

Development%2

Punjab 22.56 34.66 -12.1 154

Delhi 0.31 0.40 -0.09 129

Rajasthan 11.86 14.52 -2.66 122

Haryana 10.48 12.43 -1.95 119

Daman & Diu 0.012 0.011 0.001 91.7

Puducherry 0.171 0.150 0.021 87.7

Tamil Nadu 22.94 16.56 6.38 72.2

Gujarat 18.43 12.99 5.44 70.5

Uttar Pradesh 75.25 49.48 25.77 65.8

Karnataka 16.81 10.01 6.8 59.5

India as a whole 431.03 243.32 187.71 56.5

Madhya Pradesh 33.95 17.99 15.96 53.0

Himachal Pradesh 0.59 0.31 0.28 52.5

Uttarakhand 2.17 1.05 1.12 48.4

Maharashtra 35.73 16.95 18.78 47.4

Kerala 6.62 2.81 3.81 42.4

Andhra Pradesh1

33.83 14.15 19.68 41.8

Bihar 28.63 11.36 17.27 39.7

West Bengal 30.50 10.91 19.59 35.8

Chhattisgarh 12.22 3.60 8.62 29.5

Jharkhand 5.96 1.61 4.35 27.0

Lakshdweep 0.0105 0.0026 0.0079 24.8

Orissa 17.78 4.36 13.42 24.5

Goa 0.221 0.044 0.177 19.9

Assam 30.35 6.026 24.324 19.9

Jammu & Kashmir 3.70 0.73 2.97 19.7

Dadara & Nagar Haveli 0.059 0.009 0.05 15.3

Tripura 2.97 0.16 2.81 5.39

Andaman & Nicobar 0.310 0.011 0.299 3.55

Sikkim

0.46 0.010 0.45 2.17

Nagaland 0.42 0.008 0.412 1.90

Mizoram 0.044 0.0004 0.0436 0.91

Manipur 0.44 0.0040 0.436 0.91

Meghalaya 1.2343 0.0017 1.2326 0.14

Arunachal Pradesh 4.45 0.003 4.447 0.07

Chandigarh 0.022 0.0002 0.022 0.00 1Includes Telangana State formed on 2

nd Jun 2014

2 CGWB considers draft as zero on the basis the entire groundwater pumped is from confined aquifers

It is an established fact that any unutilised surface water on land has to join sea as surface/flood runoff.

In the same way, there is no other go for any unutilised groundwater except to join ultimately sea all

along the coast with over 90% leaving as base flow and underground runoff beneath rivers. The flow

rate of groundwater joining the sea is so slow that it could be harnessed more easily for human use by

taking advantage of the enormous storage capacity of groundwater in the underground natural

reservoirs. In contrast to this, surface water has to be stored in manmade reservoirs of varying sizes

resulting in submergence of forestland, cultivated land and human settlements leading to various

conflicts and environmental degradation. The work of the Environmental Engineering Division of

Department of Chemical Engineering of Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai with a project funded by

the Ministry of Urban Development of Govt of India during 1989-1992 has revealed that shallow fresh

groundwater flows all along the sea coast all the time at a rate of 4 to 30 cubic metres (m3) a day per

metre-width of sea coast accounting to a total of around 16 billion cubic metres (bcm) or km3 per year

along the entire Indian coast other than that joining through rivers. Millions of years of accumulation of

a portion of such groundwater that could not directly mix with seawater owing to lying beneath

confining clay formations account for the source of massive aquifers under the sea discovered recently

(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/massive-aquifers-under-the-sea-could-sate-thirst/).

Based on the stage of groundwater development (SGD), the CGWB has classified states as safe when

SGD is not more than 70%, semi-critical when not more than 90%, critical when not more than 100% and

over-exploited when more than 100%. With an SGD of 56.5%, India as a whole still falls under safe

category with 10 states having higher SGD and the rest lower SGD. When the State/Union Territory is

taken as unit, 29 states (including Telangana) fall under safe category, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and

Puduchhery under semi-critical category, Daman & Diu under critical category, and Haryana, Rajasthan,

Delhi and Punjab under overexploited category. Of the total assessed units of 5723 in the country, the

stage of groundwater development is safe in 71.3% units, semi-critical in 9.6% units, critical in 3.9%

units, and overexploited in 14.7% units with 0.5% units having water-quality problems. Even in the

overexploited states and units, the entire command area irrigated by surface water and some areas

under non-command areas have safe stage of groundwater development. This data dispels the oft-

repeated slogan that there is overexploitation of groundwater in India.

For formulating any irrigation project based on surface water, 75% dependable yield is necessary. That

means, the project is cleared if adequate water is available at least three out of four years. This is true

even with the recently-sanctioned Polavaram Irrigation Project to benefit both Andhra Pradesh and

Telangana as a Central project. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been already executing many

irrigation projects in the Krishna river basin with 50% dependable yield, meaning assured water

availability at least once in two years. Unlike this, groundwater development in areas falling under safe,

semi-critical and critical categories have 100% dependable yield. This dispels the oft-repeated statement

that construction of major irrigation reservoirs alone can make India to overcome water shortages.

WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND COOPERATION (DAC):

Year-wise data collected by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) of the Ministry of

Agriculture on state-wise net and gross areas irrigated by surface and groundwater resources from

1950-51 to 2010-11 is given in Table 2. The percent net area irrigated by groundwater to that irrigated

by the sum of surface and ground waters was 29% in 1950-51 and gradually increased to 61% in 2010-

11. Despite spending enormous amounts on the construction and maintenance of tanks and reservoirs,

there has been a gradual reduction in the use of surface water and a gradual increase in the use of

groundwater for irrigation. This indicate the unsustainable nature of surface water and sustainable

nature of groundwater.

TABLE 2: YEAR-WISE NET & GROSS AREAS IRRIGATED FROM SOURCES OF SURFACE AND

GROUND WATERS IN INDIA (Million Hectares)

(http://eands.dacnet.nic.in/LUS-2010-11/All-India-3.pdf)

Year

Irrigated by Surface Water Sources

Irrigated by

Groundwater

Net Area

Irrigated

Gross

Area

Irrigated

% Net

Area

Irrigated

by GW Canals Tanks Lift irrigation Total

1950-51 8.30 3.61 2.97 14.88 5.98 20.85 22.56 29

1951-52 8.68 3.49 2.36 14.53 6.52 21.05 23.18 31

1952-53 8.86 3.30 2.44 14.60 6.52 21.12 23.31 31

1953-54 8.86 4.23 2.10 15.18 6.69 21.87 24.36 31

1954-55 9.07 4.03 2.27 15.36 6.73 22.09 24.95 30

1955-56 9.39 4.42 2.21 16.02 6.74 22.76 25.64 30

1956-57 9.27 4.49 2.20 15.97 6.57 22.53 25.71 29

1957-58 9.65 4.54 2.15 16.34 6.82 23.16 26.63 29

1958-59 9.67 4.76 2.29 16.72 6.69 23.40 26.95 29

1959-60 10.11 4.63 2.21 16.95 7.08 24.04 27.45 29

1960-61 10.37 4.56 2.44 17.37 7.29 24.66 27.98 30

1961-62 10.50 4.61 2.42 17.53 7.35 24.88 28.46 30

1962-63 10.83 4.78 2.40 18.02 7.65 25.67 29.45 30

1963-64 11.02 4.60 2.48 18.10 7.78 25.89 29.71 30

1964-65 11.22 4.78 2.52 18.53 8.08 26.60 30.71 30

1965-66 10.96 4.26 2.48 17.69 8.65 26.34 30.90 33

1966-67 11.25 4.42 2.04 17.71 9.20 26.91 32.68 34

1967-68 11.24 4.49 2.35 18.08 9.11 27.19 33.21 34

1968-69 11.89 3.93 2.39 18.21 10.80 29.01 35.48 37

1969-70 12.61 4.06 2.36 19.02 11.18 30.20 36.97 37

1970-71 12.84 4.11 2.27 19.22 11.89 31.10 38.20 38

1971-72 13.12 3.73 2.42 19.27 12.28 31.55 38.43 39

1972-73 13.00 3.62 2.26 18.87 12.96 31.83 39.06 41

1973-74 13.07 3.90 2.30 19.26 13.28 32.55 40.28 41

1974-75 13.51 3.54 2.42 19.48 14.23 33.71 41.74 42

1975-76 13.79 3.97 2.39 20.15 14.44 34.59 43.36 42

1976-77 13.86 3.90 2.30 20.06 15.09 35.15 43.55 43

1977-78 14.58 3.90 2.48 20.96 15.58 36.55 46.08 43

1978-79 15.15 3.94 2.54 21.63 16.43 38.06 48.31 43

1979-80 14.77 3.48 2.41 20.66 17.86 38.52 49.21 46

1980-81 15.29 3.18 2.55 21.03 17.70 38.72 49.78 46

1981-82 15.95 3.38 2.44 21.77 18.74 40.50 51.41 46

1982-83 16.19 2.94 2.22 21.34 19.35 40.69 51.83 48

1983-84 16.76 3.53 2.26 22.56 19.39 41.95 53.82 46

1984-85 16.28 3.02 2.46 21.75 20.39 42.15 54.53 48

1985-86 16.18 2.77 2.50 21.45 20.42 41.87 54.28 49

1986-87 16.50 2.68 2.58 21.75 20.82 42.57 55.76 49

1987-88 15.75 2.52 2.83 21.10 21.80 42.89 56.04 51

1988-89 17.10 3.00 2.84 22.93 23.21 46.15 61.13 50

1989-90 17.12 2.94 2.75 22.82 23.89 46.70 61.85 51

1990-91 17.45 2.94 2.93 23.33 24.69 48.02 63.20 51

1991-92 17.79 2.99 3.05 23.83 26.04 49.87 65.68 52

1992-93 16.99 3.18 3.21 23.38 26.92 50.30 66.76 54

1993-94 17.14 3.17 3.44 23.74 27.60 51.34 68.25 54

1994-95 17.28 3.28 3.53 24.09 28.91 53.00 70.65 55

1995-96 17.12 3.12 3.47 23.71 29.70 53.40 71.35 56

1996-97 17.11 2.82 3.39 23.32 31.80 55.11 76.03 58

1997-98 17.40 2.60 3.11 23.10 32.11 55.21 75.67 58

1998-99 17.31 2.80 3.33 23.44 34.00 57.44 78.67 59

1999-00 17.44 2.54 2.91 22.89 34.64 57.53 79.22 60

2000-01 16.01 2.47 2.91 21.39 33.82 55.21 76.19 61

2001-02 15.20 2.20 4.34 21.74 35.20 56.94 78.37 62

2002-03 14.07 1.81 3.66 19.54 34.36 53.90 73.06 64

2003-04 14.46 1.92 4.30 20.67 36.39 57.06 78.04 64

2004-05 14.77 1.73 7.54 24.04 35.19 59.23 81.08 59

2005-06 16.72 2.08 5.97 24.77 36.07 60.84 84.28 59

2006-07 17.03 2.08 6.00 25.10 37.64 62.75 86.75 60

2007-08 16.75 1.97 6.11 24.83 38.36 63.19 88.06 61

2008-09 16.88 1.98 6.02 24.88 38.76 63.64 88.90 61

2009-10 14.98 1.59 7.01 23.58 38.36 61.94 85.09 62

2010-11 15.67 2.00 6.87 24.54 39.06 63.60 89.36 61

WORK OF THE MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES:

The Ministry of Water Resources of Govt of India has been taking up periodically minor irrigation census

on the gross land irrigated by minor irrigation sources from all over India using both surface water and

groundwater resources since a long time. Information on major and medium irrigation projects is

however not collected during this census. Unlike surface water resources restricted to some places only,

groundwater is dispersed to very large number of places. According to the 4th

minor irrigation census

(2006-07), there are around 19.8 million wells of various categories irrigating a gross land of over 57

million ha with an average yield per well of 1.7 ha for dug wells, 3.5 ha for shallow bore/tube wells, 5.8

ha for deep bore/tube wells and a mean of 2.8 ha for all types of wells (Table 3). Compared to USA

where mean discharge of irrigation wells is 500,000 cu m/well/year , irrigation wells in India have a

mean discharge 60 times less than that because the irrigation wells in India are tailored just to meet the

irrigation needs of the farmers’ small holdings. This wastage of constructing enormous number of low-

yielding wells can be avoided by constructing lesser number of high-yielding wells for equitable water

distribution to the multitude of small and marginal farmers.

Table 3 gives the state-wise gross land in hectares irrigated by groundwater in every sq km of land

arranged in descending order. It is seen that Punjab tops all other states with extreme groundwater

overexploitation, while several states particularly in the North East exploiting little or no groundwater.

While discouraging states such as Punjab from intensifying groundwater exploitation, a vigorous

campaign is necessary in most states for taking up intensive groundwater exploitation.

TABLE 3: STATE-WISE GROSS LAND IRRIGATED BY GROUNDWATER

(States arranged in the order of decreasing gross land irrigated by GW)

http://micensus.gov.in/index.html

State

Geographical Area

(sq km)

Gross GW Irrigated

Land (ha)

Gross Land Irrigated by GW in

ha/sq km of Geographical Area

Punjab 50,362 7,350,965 146.0

Uttar Pradesh 240,928 19,950,184 82.8

Haryana 44,212 2,385,075 53.9

Delhi 1,483 57,732 38.9

Bihar 94,163 3,241,997 34.4

West Bengal 88,752 2,456,718 27.7

Tamil Nadu 130,058 3,182,131 24.5

Madhya Pradesh 308,245 6,697,419 21.7

Gujarat 196,024 4,164,524 21.2

India as a whole 3,287,245 57,121,888 17.4

Rajasthan 342,239 5,851,024 17.1

Chandigarh 114 1,931 16.9

Maharashtra 307,713 4,640,790 15.1

Puducherry 479 6,287 13.1

Andhra Pradesh 275,045 3,406,682 12.4

Karnataka 191,791 1,702,061 8.87

Uttarakhand 53,483 343,974 6.43

Chhattisgarh 135,191 851,489 6.30

Dadra & Nagar Haveli 491 2,164 4.41

Assam 78,438 244,216 3.11

Kerala 38,863 113,720 2.93

Odisha 155,707 365,113 2.34

Jharkhand 79,714 172,906 2.17

Goa 3,702 5,055 1.37

Tripura 10,486 10,913 1.04

Himachal Pradesh 55,673 43,539 0.78

Andaman & Nicobars 8,249 1,166 0.14

Jammu & Kashmir 222,236 10,011 0.05

Meghalaya 22,429 853 0.04

Nagaland 16,579 175 0.01

Arunachal Pradesh 83,743 168 0.002

Manipur 22,327 0 0

Mizoram 21,081 0 0

Sikkim 7,096 0 0

Daman & Diu 112 0 0

Lakshadweep 37 0 0

NEED FOR CONJUNCTIVE USE OF SURFACE WATER AND GROUNDWATER TO ACHIEVE WATER

SECURITY:

Although the factual data collected by the three premier Central Government Organisations point out

that groundwater development is more sustainable than surface water development, this does not

mean that surface water is not important. It is only because of rainwater and surface water,

groundwater gets recharged. By taking advantage of the enormous storage capacity of the naturally-

occurring dynamic and static groundwater reservoirs in the underground, the large surface water

available through rainwater could be put to effective use for recharging groundwater. When

groundwater is overexploited, natural recharge or conventional methods of recharging groundwater will

not be adequate. It is necessary to emulate developed countries such as USA and Australia who have

taken up Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR)/Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) methods on an

intensive scale to recharge deep groundwater through deep bore (tube) wells.

OUR WORK ON WATER-RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT:

As part of a training programme for students, unemployed post-graduate degree holders, research

scholars, and less-educated youth being trained as barefoot scientists, we in the Department of Geology

of Sri Venkateswara University have taken up detailed geological, hydrological, geophysical, and

exploratory drilling/boring studies on water resources development in a cost-effective manner since

1965 to prove the availability of water of adequate quality and quantity besides taking up investigation,

design formulation, and supervision of construction of high-yielding wells for all those seeking our

expertise. Figure 1 is a high-yielding well constructed near Tirupati in a semiarid tract way back in 1974.

Figure 1: A high-yielding shallow infiltration well being constructed in the Swarnamukhi Riverbed under our supervision at

Gazulamandyam Industrial Development Area of A.P. Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd near Tirupati in 1974. Water

from the well under construction had to be pumped using four centrifugal pumps to enable well diggers to deepen the well

manually. With the construction of a dam across Kalyani River, a tributary of Swarnamukhi River in the upstream in 1977,

there has been however substantial reduction in the well’s yield. We have been subsequently associated with T. Damadora

Rao of Tamilnadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board in the improved design of high-yielding shallow wells fitted with

specially-made permeable blocks in riverbeds and radial collector wells fitted with specially-made permeable capsules to

exploit fresh water floating on seawater in coastal areas without saline water intrusion.

Although construction of wells of right design at right places is a specialised art requiring scientific

inputs, this is not understood by most groundwater users. They just construct wells where they need

water. When enough or no water comes, the NGOs make a big hue and cry that groundwater

overexploitation was responsible for well failure and demand for banning of groundwater exploitation.

The truth however is that well failures in most cases are not because of overexploitation of

groundwater, but because of constructing wells at wrong sites with wrong design. Failure to understand

the importance of scientific methods of groundwater exploration and development has led to enormous

wastage and inefficiency in well-sinking operations with occasional suicide deaths by farmers who got

into debt trap due to construction of too many dry wells. Had the well users provided with proper

scientific advice on well-site selection and well design, enormous wastage caused by faulty well-

construction could be avoided. There is urgent need to prepare large-scale maps of all parts of India

showing locations of all existing wells which are high-yielding, low-yielding, dry and abandoned due to

various reasons, and locations of sites suitable and unsuitable for well construction. If such maps are

made available in the public domain and well users are educated to make use of those maps effectively

in well citing and sinking, the enormous wastage being incurred in faulty well sinking operations could

be reduced to a great extent.

Concerned with the high failure rate of drinking-water wells constructed by the State Government

Departments to provide drinking water, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has hired the

services of the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), earlier called National Remote Sensing Agency

(NRSA), with funds made available by the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (RGNDWM), to

prepare groundwater prospects maps using remote sensing and several other methods for selection of

well sites besides constructing artificial-recharge structures for groundwater on a scale of 1:50,000. For

the benefit of all groundwater users, these maps are now made available at

http://www.mdws.gov.in/node/2623 and http://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/ministry-drinking-

water-and-sanitation-and-national-remote-sensing-agency-release.

One major limitation with these groundwater prospects maps is that they are prepared from satellite

images captured by Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites with a coarse spatial resolution of 23.5 m.

Although these maps are quite useful to obtain a broad idea of the groundwater conditions of any area,

their coarse scale does not allow for using them to distinguish sites favourable and sites unfavourable

for well construction. There is a need to prepare large-scale groundwater prospects maps by making use

of the satellite images captured by DigitalGlobe – which took over GeoEye to become the only

commercial provider selling high-resolution satellite images of the entire world including India with a

resolution of as high as 0.5/0.25 m. With the ready availability of these high-resolution images in the

Google Earth public domain, hope has come now to evolve improved methods of pinpointing sites for

high-yielding wells with high success rate in a highly cost-effective manner. We have already made a

beginning in this direction in select places right from Bhutan in the north to Tirunelveli District of

Tamilnadu in the south by mapping all categories of existing wells including successful wells, dry wells

and abandoned wells together with locations of favourable and unfavourable sites arrived at through

remote sensing, geological, hydrological and geophysical studies. Some of our works have been

illustrated in Figures 2 to 10.

Figure 2: A Google Earth image on a scale of 1:5400 captured by DigitalGlobe satellite on 30 Nov 2011 showing a specially-

designed high-yielding shallow well constructed by Mr. T. Vedadri s/o Mr. T. Damadora Rao of the TWAD Board of Chennai in

1987 in the bed of the Tungabhadra River under our supervision to make water supply of M/s. Sree Rayalaseema Alkalis &

Allied Chemicals Pvt. Ltd, at Kurnool sustainable.

Figure 3: A Google Earth image on a scale of 1:3600 captured by DigitalGlobe satellite on 27 Aug 2010 showing construction

of rainwater harvesting structures and a specially-designed shallow well constructed by Mr. T. Vedadri under our supervision

in the beverages plant of M/s. Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd (HCCBPL), Sri Kalahasti. Despite intensive pumping of

groundwater in the vicinity, the rainwater harvesting structures along the eastern border of the factory remained perennial

due to lying along a buried river flowing in a northeast direction.

Figure 4: A Google Earth image on a scale of 1:6100 showing an 80-acre plot of Sai Gardens in Kesampet Mandal,

Mahaboobnagar District, Telangana captured by GeoEye satellite on 4 Apr 2012. The farm could get additional

water through construction of a productive well selected close to a dry bore well. To further enhance water

availability, recharge of deep groundwater by the Aquifer Storage & Recovery (ASR) method has been

advocated. The method consists in forcing surface water filtered through an assemblage of permeable capsules

to recharge an existing deep bore well.

Figure 5: A Google Earth image on a scale of 1:4100 showing a spinning mill in Balanagar Mandal, Mahaboobnagar District,

Telangana, once facing water shortages, has now enough water by adopting our recommendations for sinking bore wells and

construction of check dams at potential sites away from the factory.

Figure 6: A Google Earth image on a scale of 1:4500 captured by GeoEye satellite on 5 Oct 2012 showing a posh locality of

Sadashiva Nagar in Bangalore showing the location of a Problem Bore Well of a builder discharging excessive silty water

during drilling. Apart from helping him to obtain silt-free water from the bore well, our work has helped in the location of a

sand-bearing buried stream flowing in a northeast direction from Sankey Tank through an abandoned dug well close to the

Problem Bore Well. The builder now gets adequate water from the renovated dug well as well as the bore well.

Figure 7: A Google Earth image on a scale of 1:1000 showing a close-up view of Figure 6.

Figure 8: A Google Earth image on a scale of 1:6900 captured by DigitalGlobe satellite on 27 Nov 2012 showing an area in

Pasakha, Bhutan occupied by Bhutan Silicon Metal Pvt. Ltd (BSMPL) in the north and Bhutan Ferro Alloys Ltd (BFAL) in the

south where 48 vertical electric soundings in 2013. As no site for the construction of a successful bore well could be

obtained, we have recommended for the construction of a filtration plant using an assemblage of permeable capsules to

obtain clear potable water from the highly-turbid surface water of the perennial Barsa River bordering the factories.

Figure 9: A Google Earth image on a scale of 1:2400 captured by the DigitalGlobe satellite on 27 Nov 2012 showing the colony

of Bhutan Ferro Alloys Ltd (BFAL) showing the location of 21 sites where geoelectric soundings were taken in 2013. Sounding

Nos. 1 and 3 are found favourable for the construction of bore wells to meet the water needs of the colony.

Figure 10: An undated composite satellite image on a scale of 200,000 scale captured by DigitalGlobe & Cnes/Spot satellites

showing the alignment of pipeline under construction to convey surface water of Tamaribarani River water to the AMRL

International Tech City Ltd, Nanguneri Block, Tirunelveli District, Tamilnadu. The new site for the Packaged Drinking Water

Industry for Gelma Frozen Foods Private Ltd of Tirupati has been selected close to the pipeline south of the State Highway

No. 92 (Figure 11), so that the factory can make use of both surface water and groundwater.

Figure 11: A Google Earth image on a scale of 1:3900 captured by DigitalGlobe satellite captured on 19 May 2011 showing the

existing wells and geophysical soundings taken in the AMRL International Tech City Ltd south of the State Highway No. 92

shown in Figure 10 where the packaged drinking water industry has been recommended. Apart from surface water, the

factory draws groundwater from bore wells at sounding points 4 and 7 south of the highway.