Quantification of groundwater resource of Kandi subdivision of Murshidabad district, West Bengal

Groundwater is an open access resource of the country. Groundwater plays a major role in agriculture, accounting for 94.5% of total water requirement in all minor irrigation systems in India (Minor Irrigation Census 2017). Trends today are to continuously assess this resource, so that the necessary management systems could be developed before the time when groundwater condition becomes critical. In this work, an attempt has been made to quantify the groundwater resource of Kandi subdivision of Murshidabad district of West Bengal. The paper mooted herein has attempted to identify the recharge of the aquifer from rainfall and other sources using a water table fluctuation method and CN method. The work has tried to identify the nature of the aquifer and the volumetric assessment of the aquifer using borehole lithologs. The gross draft of the study area has been assessed as per GEC norms. The paper has developed a methodology to identify the state of development as per GEC norms. The stage of development of the study area indicates that scientific management of the water resource should be undertaken before the area becomes critical.