Flying Institute near Patna airport on
Wednesday to identify the hidden reserves of water and decipher the
aquifer geometry in Patna district. The survey will provide accurate
information on water availability beneath 50-300 metres of land. The
technology has been shared by Denmark.
Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) member R C Jain and regional director Dipankar Saha, Geological Survey of India director in charge N P Maharatra, state minor irrigation department secretary Mihir Kumar Singh, public health engineering department secretary Anshuli Arya and other scientists jointly flagged off the helicopter fitted with Sky-TEM (transient electromagnetic) equipment which would cover an area of 120 sq km between Naubatpur and Bikram areas in five days.
CGWB officials claimed that India will be soon among the few countries using HGS. "This survey will provide us accurate information. Unlike ground research, it will give continuous data of a huge area of land in a short span of time. Only 4-5 countries are using this technology so far," said Jain.
The union water resource ministry will map around 9 lakh sq km in five states of the country. The CGWB, with assistance from National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), is spearheading the project at an estimated cost Rs3,300 crore. The data collected through HGS survey will be collaborated with ground research to spot the exact locations of water availability. The information will later be shared with farmers, government and other stakeholders.
Saha pointed out that as a prelude to detailed aquifer (storehouse of groundwater) mapping for the entire country, five pilot projects have been taken up in different parts of India. Maner-Khagaul area in Patna district has been taken up for detailed aquifer mapping as one of the six pilot projects. Various hydrogeological, geochemical and geophysical investigations are being carried out in the pilot study area located in the western and southwestern part of Patna district. Two geophysicists from Aarhus University of Denmark explained the HGS utility for correct assessment of groundwater resources. "HGS will give continuous data of the region. In the survey, a helicopter fitted with Sky-TEM, a device to map the near surface in high resolution with accurate measurements of depths up to about 300 metres, will fly in a definite path. The data collected will then be collaborated with the ground research in same areas. This will help scientists in spotting exact locations of water," they said.
Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) member R C Jain and regional director Dipankar Saha, Geological Survey of India director in charge N P Maharatra, state minor irrigation department secretary Mihir Kumar Singh, public health engineering department secretary Anshuli Arya and other scientists jointly flagged off the helicopter fitted with Sky-TEM (transient electromagnetic) equipment which would cover an area of 120 sq km between Naubatpur and Bikram areas in five days.
CGWB officials claimed that India will be soon among the few countries using HGS. "This survey will provide us accurate information. Unlike ground research, it will give continuous data of a huge area of land in a short span of time. Only 4-5 countries are using this technology so far," said Jain.
The union water resource ministry will map around 9 lakh sq km in five states of the country. The CGWB, with assistance from National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), is spearheading the project at an estimated cost Rs3,300 crore. The data collected through HGS survey will be collaborated with ground research to spot the exact locations of water availability. The information will later be shared with farmers, government and other stakeholders.
Saha pointed out that as a prelude to detailed aquifer (storehouse of groundwater) mapping for the entire country, five pilot projects have been taken up in different parts of India. Maner-Khagaul area in Patna district has been taken up for detailed aquifer mapping as one of the six pilot projects. Various hydrogeological, geochemical and geophysical investigations are being carried out in the pilot study area located in the western and southwestern part of Patna district. Two geophysicists from Aarhus University of Denmark explained the HGS utility for correct assessment of groundwater resources. "HGS will give continuous data of the region. In the survey, a helicopter fitted with Sky-TEM, a device to map the near surface in high resolution with accurate measurements of depths up to about 300 metres, will fly in a definite path. The data collected will then be collaborated with the ground research in same areas. This will help scientists in spotting exact locations of water," they said.
The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has recently launched a helicopter-borne electromagnetic survey in Patna for accurate and comprehensive assessment of groundwater resources of the district. A helicopter will collect important data of the subsurface geology and groundwater occurrence up to a depth of 300 metres.
The project is funded by the World Bank, and has been launched in collaboration with the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI)-Hyderabad and Aarhus University, Denmark. The interpretation of the data will be validated on the ground with borehole results.
The unique ability of the heli-borne survey to accurately map the top 300 metres in fine detail has been used by engineers and environmentalists in Australia, Malaysia, Norway, Greenland, Italy, Germany, Holland, France and other countries, and has been employed for a wide range of applications, including tunnel pre-engineering, contaminant plume detection, tailings pond assessment and coastal salt water encroachment studies.
Bihar is one of the six states selected by CGWB for pilot aquifer mapping. Bihar represents the alluvial area. Other states, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan represent desert, coastal, volcanic and hard rock regions.
Like most countries in the world, India's major water demands are fulfilled from groundwater. The ever-increasing population and its resultant stress on groundwater are felt largely in terms of drying of large number of bore wells across the country.
Source: Times of India
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