Minister of Water Resources Released Atlas named Aquifer System of India

Minister of water resources and parliamentary affairs Pawan Kumar Bansal on 28 September 2012 in New Delhi had released Atlas for six states namely- Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

The atlas comprises data on various aspect of ground water since its inception that was compiled and integrated by the Central Ground Water Board. The atlas was named as Aquifer System of India.

The atlas provides a country wide overview and summary of the most important information available for each principal and major aquifer systems and depicts aquifer wise ground water scenario. It also deals with major issues and challenges which need immediate attention for sustainable management of ground water resources.

In this process, a baseline data on GIS platform was created for initiating National Aquifer Mapping Programme and demarcating priority areas for aquifer wise management of ground water resources on scientific and sustainable basis. Attempt was also made to represent the correlations of various thematic layers such as climate, topographic settings on the occurrence, movement, and chemical quality of ground water in map forms.

The Atlas is going to be of immense use for Regional and National ground water resources planning by the policy makers and anyone who needs to understand ground water scenario in the country.