Rising Watertable in Rohtak and Jhajjar Districts of Haryana: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis

Abstract

Due to rapid growth of population and expansion of irrigation water resource is facing tremendous stress. In areas where the surface water is negligible, the larger part of irrigation is being sustained by the groundwater irrigation through tubewells. This has resulted in continues lowering of water table. On the other hand, in the canal command areas, the water table is progressively rising. The focus in the study is on water table and its fluctuation in Rohtak and Jhajjar districts of Haryana state. The development of canal system in centre parts of Haryana brought a large area under irrigation and helped in the introduction of heavy irrigation crops like rice though the crop production has increased tremendously, yet the none exploitation of the saline ground water and use of heavy surface irrigation have lead to the rising of the water table in central part of Haryana. More than 50 percent area in this region is under critical zone (0-3m). Though this problem has assumed a serious proportion yet it is still possible to tackle.