AN ANALYSIS OF SUITABILITY OF GROUNDWATER FOR AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES IN AMBALA CITY AND AMBALA CANTONMENT AREA, HARYANA, INDIA
Author: Ritu Sarsoha
Ritu Sarsoha: Assistant Professor, Post Graduate Govt. College Sector 46, Chandigarh, India.
ABSTRACT
The world has witnessed great development in past decades but deterioration of natural resources is a side product of all this progress and achievement. India hosts 16% of the world’s population but water available here is only 4%. Being a major agriculture country, the dependence on groundwater resources is high particularly in non-Himalayan states. The present study explores the quality of groundwater in the study area to cater the needs on agricultural front. In the present study, the groundwater quality for suitability in agriculture from Ambala City and Ambala Cantonment, has been evaluated. A total of 61 groundwater samples have been collected and analysed for pH, EC, TH, HCO3−, CO32−, Cl−, SO42−, NO3–, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+. To assess the groundwater quality for irrigation purpose, parameters like sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), permeability index (PI), values have been calculated. The values of SAR indicate that all of the samples were found in good water category. In USSL diagram, the groundwater in Ambala City and Ambala Cantonment for irrigation purposes is of C3S1, C4S1 and C1S1 type indicating that water in Ambala City and Ambala Cantonment exhibits high salinity and low sodium and very high salinity and low sodium hazard. On the basis of RSC, all groundwater samples were observed to be suitable for irrigation purpose.
Keywords: Agriculture, Groundwater, PI, KI, SAR, RSC, Wilcox