J. Earth Syst. Sci. (2020) 129:109 Ó Indian Academy of Sciences

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-020-1380-6 (0123456789().,-volV)(0123456789().,-volV)

Understanding stable isotope systematics of salinity aAected groundwater in Mewat, ,

1, 1 1 2 GOPAL KRISHAN *, N C GHOSH ,CPKUMAR ,LALIT MOHAN SHARMA , 3 3 1 1 BRIJESH YADAV ,MLKANSAL ,SURJEET SINGH ,SKVERMA and 1 GOKUL PRASAD 1National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247 667, India. 2Sehgal Foundation, Gurugram, Haryana 122 003, India. 3Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247 667, India. *Corresponding author. e-mail: [email protected]

MS received 29 August 2018; revised 15 November 2019; accepted 29 January 2020

Mewat district in Haryana located in the semi-arid region of India has been reported continual increase of groundwater salinity. Stable isotopes, d18O and dD, of groundwater and rain water were successfully used for characterization and source identiBcation of salinity aAected groundwater in the area. Eleven rep- resentative groundwater samples were of the pre-monsoon (May), monsoon (August) and post-monsoon (November) seasons were analyzed for determining EC, d18O, dD and other parameters. The mean EC of the samples was determined 6712 lS/cm for the pre-monsoon, 4743 lS/cm for the monsoon and 6602 lS/ cm for the post-monsoon. The slope of LMWL (8.13) obtained from the bivariate plot showed a very close to the GMWL (8) and the slope of rain water (7.47) and groundwater samples found lied on the right of the LMWL for all the seasons. Slopes observed for the pre-monsoon (6.76), monsoon (5.63) and post- monsoon (6.11) seasons indicated some evaporative enrichment of water before the groundwater recharge. The increase of d-excess values from 0.74 in pre-monsoon to 3.75 in monsoon and 4.46 in post-monsoon seasons suggested modern recharge with low evaporation. The recharge by meteoric water was noted from the decrease in the mean value of EC in the monsoon season and its increase in the post-monsoon season, which suggested possible ‘mechanism of mixing’. All these processes qualitatively predicted the recharge and discharge locations in the study area. Keywords. Groundwater; salinity; stable isotopes; source identiBcation; Mewat, Haryana.

1. Introduction The Mewat area in Haryana state (India) that characterizes a semi-arid region with annual rain- Isotopes are increasingly being applied in hydro- fall ranges between 200 and 500 mm (Singh et al. geological investigations as a complementary tool 2007) describing seasonal lakes and moderate for assessment of aquifer Cow and water quality groundwater in alluvial aquifers (Krishan et al. characteristics. Stable isotopes data have shown 2017), faces the problem of intrinsic widely spread excellent results in identiBcation of source water groundwater salinity problem. Groundwater is the and demonstrating the dynamics of groundwater in major source of water both domestic and agricul- an aquifer system (Stute et al. 1992; Ekwurzel et al. ture, but 84% of the total 503 villages covering 1994). an area of about 1266 km2 has unusable saline 109 Page 2 of 9 J. Earth Syst. Sci. (2020) 129:109 groundwater; remaining 16% of the villages, (ii) anthropogenic driven processes (Gampson et al. covering 241 km2 has fresh groundwater, which are 2015). mostly located along the foothills of the Aravalli The present study deals with characterization range. This fresh groundwater resource is vulner- and source identiBcation of salinity aAected able for use in domestic, irrigation and industrial groundwater in Mewat, Haryana using stable iso- purposes (CGWB 2012; Krishan et al. 2017) due to topes (d18O, dD) of groundwater and rain water being overused and abused by the local water together with identiBcation of saline zones and maBa. One third households in the region have Bnding the groundwater recharge zones. their own bore wells and most of the prosperous farmers have started consolidating their lands in the freshwater zones near the ridges and foothills of 2. Study area the (Priyanka et al. 2018). Pressure on the freshwater resource increases sturdily with Haryana state in India lies mainly in the Indo- an abstraction of 605 m3/day during the summer Gangetic Plains and River , a tributary of time, when the natural supply decreases consider- Ganga Cows in the eastern boundary of the state. ably. This phenomenon has led groundwater There is a depressional region in the state facing depletion in the fresh water zone (high abstraction, drainage problem and resulting in water logging i.e., 605 m3/day and less recharge rate, i.e., 32.5 and salinity (Kulkarni et al. 1989). mm/year) together with spread of intrinsic saline The salinity of groundwater in Haryana has been water zone. Areas having fresh water have steep explained by different processes (Krishan 2019) as: slopes with high rainfall intensities, less inBltra- dissolution of evaporite deposits; concentration of tion. Run oA generated through rains from these salts due/evapotranspiration, especially in water- slopes recharges groundwater in the foothill region logged areas. of Aravalli hills, but it becomes unusable entering Mewat () district in Haryana covering an saline zones (Thomas et al. 2012). During low area of 1507 km2 lies between 27°300–28°200N lati- rainfall periods, farmers are forced to use the saline tude and 76°540–77°200E longitude (Bgure 1). Its groundwater for irrigation, domestic and other Bve blocks namely, Tauru, Nuh, Nagina, Firozpur purposes, which in turn aAect soil health as well as Jhirka and Punhana are surrounded by the crop yields (Mehra 2016). on the North, district to the West, Farid- These essentially necessitated an in-depth study abad district to the East and to the for critical understanding of issues which include, South. Mewat is one of the most backward districts identiBcation of salinity aAected pockets and their of Haryana with population of 10,89,263 (Census source and, origin, Cow paths of groundwater 2011). It consists of alluvial plain in the central identiBcation for suggesting proper treatment and part formed by river deposits that developed allu- management of water resources in the area. The vial fans, a Cood plain and is crossed by the area being remotely located, information/data degraded Aravalli ranges at southwest and few required for such analyses are difBcult to acquire locations at southeast. Topographically, the study using conventional hydro-geological methods. area starts from the Aravalli range from the block Stable isotope (18O, D) systematics tool as con- Tauru (*280 msl), which is covered by shrubs and servative, environmental tracers (Krishan 2015) irrigated lands in the valley. There is no general can provide direct insights for understanding slope rather some altitudinal differences observed. movement, distribution of groundwater, its qual- Some topographic depressions give rise to natural ity, recharge and contamination (Parizi and lakes in this area. The annual mean maximum Samani 2014; Hassen et al. 2016) by comparing temperature is about 40°C and annual mean min- variations in d18O and dD ratios with respect to the imum is 5.1°C. The temperature decreases from the world and local precipitation data: i.e., the global high elevated areas to low elevation areas. The meteoric water line (GMWL) and the local mete- annual precipitation is about 594 mm spread in 31 oric water line (LMWL), respectively. The isotope days (Singh et al. 2007; CGWB 2012) and 75% ratios of water varies with the season (Wu et al. of which occurs during June–September; Octo- 2014) and groundwater isotope values differ from ber–December period constitutes post-monsoon GMWL and LMWL due to the (i) natural inter- season; January to the beginning of March is the mittent processes such as evaporation, inBltration, winter season and mid-March to May is the pre- and percolation (Blasch and Bryson 2007) and monsoon season. Based on the rainfall and weather, J. Earth Syst. Sci. (2020) 129:109 Page 3 of 9 109

Figure 1. Study area showing sampling locations. the district has been categorized as the semi-arid zone. Aquifers in the district are largely made up of alluvium of quaternary age and sand, clay and kankar constitute the deeper layers of the parent material (Arya et al. 1999). The Quaternary allu- vium, with thickness 3000 m in the northeastern part and 1000 m in the southwest, has been deposited by the present and ancestral river sys- tems commenced during mid-Tertiary time in the subsiding trough (foredeep) adjacent to rising Himalayan Ranges (Kulkarni et al. 1989). There are thick deposits of clay at a depth of 50–150 m below Figure 2. Lithology of the study area. the ground surface, but lenticular clay horizons at shallow depths. There is a greater thickness of the lithologs of the borelogs are shown in Bgure 2. The sand and gravel sediments in northern part of the lithologs of the borelogs mainly showed properties state having fresh water and the southern part of of a good aquifer, except the clay and silt layer the area with predominance of clay and less thick- formations. From Bgure 2, it was observed that the ness of sand horizons have saline waters. formations having properties of good aquifer are Making use of ‘Rockworks’ software – a com- intermittent in nature, i.e., there is multiple aqui- prehensive software program for creating 2D and fer formations at a particular depth. However, clay 3D maps, logs and cross sections, geological mod- and silty clay proBle have continuous areal extent els, general geology diagrams, etc., the borelogs at different layers. Sand and Sand Kankar, which data were analyzed for delineation of the litholog- are good aquifer materials, have intermittent areal ical proBles and aquifer characterization. The point extent at different depths. 109 Page 4 of 9 J. Earth Syst. Sci. (2020) 129:109

The depth to water table is normally between pre-monsoon season, between 783 and 27,100 lS/cm 2 and 32 m bgl except the central part where it is with average of 4743 lS/cm for monsoon season and between 2 and 10 m bgl (Groundwater information between 790 and 27,700 lS/cm with average of 6602 booklet, CGWB 2012). Three types of soils, which lS/cm for the post-monsoon season. The recharge depend upon three types of terrain of the state, by meteoric water can also be observed from the constitute the morphology of the district; soils of decrease in mean value of EC by 1969 lS/cm in the hilly terrain are rocky; the upper hills are monsoon season and its subsequent increases by mostly barren and the terrain in the plains has value of 1859 lS/cm in the post-monsoon season fertile soils and the soils are light in texture par- that suggests possible ‘mechanism of mixing’. Water ticularly, sandy, sandy loam and clay loam. Soils of level rises in monsoon seasons leading to more the district are mostly salt aAected. Some topo- recharge but during non-monsoon period, due to graphic depressions have given rise to natural lakes hydraulic gradient difference water from saline zone, in the area. moves towards the fresh water zone also reported by Thomas et al.(2012). All these processes qualita- tively predict the recharge and discharge locations 3. Materials and method of groundwater in the study area. Dilution by rain water has mainly been observed in the Ulheta open To fulBl the objectives, 11 representative ground- well where EC has decreased by 70% in monsoon water samples based on the salinity map developed season as compared to pre-monsoon and again by Thomas et al. (2012) were collected (Bgure 1) increased by 183% in post-monsoon season. using the sampling protocol for the pre-monsoon Spatial variations in EC in pre-monsoon, mon- (May), monsoon (August) and post-monsoon soon and post-monsoon are shown in Bgure 3.As (November) seasons. The depth of the wells selec- per Bgure 3, area under EC [2000 lS/cm is 1291 ted for sampling ranged between 4 and 92 m km2 in pre-monsoon season which is reduced by 86 (table 1), where shallow wells have high salinity km2 in monsoon season, but increased by 29 km2 in and deeper wells have low salinity. Out of these 11 post-monsoon season. wells, 3 wells were open wells. The locations were The results of d18O values that ranged between selected from high saline zone of Nagina block and 3.43 and 7.20% in pre-monsoon season; 4.31 fresh water zone in Fatehpur Zhirka, Punhana and À À À and 7.87% in monsoon season and 4.17 and Tauru blocks. In addition, four rain water samples À À 6.92% in post-monsoon season indicated the were also collected during monsoon period. These À average of 5.52%, 5.93% and 5.92% for the samples were pre-Bltered with 0.45 lm Blter paper À À À pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, and collected in poly tetra Cuoro ethylene (PTFE) respectively. The results of dD values that ranged sample bottles. EC was recorded in the Beld using between 30.86 and 57.02% in pre-monsoon Hach, HQ30d portable meter. À À season; 32.79 and 53% in monsoon season and The ratios of heavy stable isotopes (d18O and À À 31.73 and 50.05% in post-monsoon season dD) were measured using a Dual Inlet Isotope À À indicated the average of 43.26%, 43.71% and Ratio Mass Spectrometer-DI IRMS (Isoprime GV À À 42.89% for pre-monsoon, monsoon and post- instruments, UK) with automatic sample prepa- À monsoon seasons, respectively. The isotope values ration units at Nuclear Hydrology Laboratory of thus described that the pre-monsoon samples were National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee. The enriched by approximately more than 0.4% than measured errors (precision) in estimates were that of the monsoon and post-monsoon samples for within the limits of ± 0.1% for d18O and ±1.0% for both d18O and dD. It might be due to the evapo- dD. The isotope ratios for 18O/16O and D/H were ration eAect to a limited extent. The average iso- expressed in per mil units using the d notation tope values of d18O and dD are lighter in monsoon relative to VSMOW. and post-monsoon seasons as compared to monsoon season. 4. Results and discussion The bivariate plot of d18O vs. dD is significant for interpretations of the origin, source and move- The isotope composition and EC of groundwater ment of water in the hydrosphere (Bgure 4) due samples for different seasons is given in table 1 to the conservative nature of d18O and dDin showed that EC varied between 700 and 30,700 lS/ groundwater in the saturated zone of the aquifers cm with average of 6712 lS/cm for the samples of (Singh et al. 2018). .ErhSs.Sci. Syst. Earth J. (2020) 129:109

Table 1. Isotopic composition and EC of groundwater in Mewat, Haryana.

Pre-monsoon Monsoon Post-monsoon Location Depth (m) EC (lS/cm) d18O dD d-excess EC (lS/cm) d18O dD d-excess EC (lS/cm) d18O dD d-excess Chokha HP 18 1188 À7.20 À57.09 0.51 1381 À7.87 À53.00 9.99 1425 À6.92 À49.50 5.87 Lahas OW 6 2100 À5.60 À42.20 2.60 1348 À5.97 À45.35 2.44 2080 À6.79 À50.05 4.24 Ghagas HP 12 4020 À5.07 À43.72 À3.15 4710 À5.35 À40.05 2.75 4790 À5.36 À41.09 1.78 Uletha OW 5 30700 À4.66 À34.69 2.56 9280 À4.56 À36.46 0.04 26300 À4.17 À31.73 1.65 Uletha Pz 4 28000 À4.15 À34.14 À0.95 27100 À4.31 À32.79 1.67 27700 À5.16 À39.69 1.63 Naseerbad OW 6 2430 À3.43 À30.86 À3.39 2420 À5.30 À39.11 3.32 2940 À5.46 À39.47 4.24 Jhirkhola HP 75 712 À5.51 À43.23 0.87 783 À6.05 À44.40 4.03 790 À6.68 À46.15 7.25 Kotla OW 16 888 À6.69 À51.69 1.86 971 À7.35 À51.33 7.50 2340 À6.40 À47.34 3.88 Palla HP 21 2260 À6.47 À51.41 0.39 2440 À6.10 À47.38 1.44 2480 À6.52 À44.82 7.31 Tauru 1 TW 92 700 À6.20 À43.40 6.22 835 À6.38 À46.32 4.68 832 À6.01 À41.63 6.44 Tauru 2 TW 92 835 À5.74 À43.40 2.51 910 À6.01 À44.67 3.42 944 À5.65 À40.37 4.80 Min 4 700 À7.20 À57.09 À3.39 783 À7.87 À53.00 0.04 790 À6.92 À50.05 1.63 Max 92 30700 À3.43 À30.86 6.22 27100 À4.31 À32.79 9.99 27700 À4.17 À31.73 7.31 Mean 31.54 6712.09 À5.52 À43.26 0.74 4743.45 À5.93 À43.71 3.75 6601.91 À5.92 À42.89 4.46 Rain 1 ––––––À8.38 À63.13 3.92 –––– Rain 2 ––––––À3.09 À26.43 À1.74 –––– Rain 3 ––––––À3.74 À23.53 6.43 –––– Rain 4 ––––––À6.10 À44.09 4.72 –––– HP: Hand pump; OW: Open well; Pz: Piezometer; TW: Tube well. ae5o 9 of 5 Page 109 109 Page 6 of 9 J. Earth Syst. Sci. (2020) 129:109

Figure 3. Spatial variation in EC.

Figure 4. Isotope characterisation of groundwater.

Regression equations (1–6) of the characteristics groundwater recharge is the meteoric water. The isotopes’ least squares best Bt lines shown in table 2 monsoon line indicated that two groundwater indicated the LMWL (equation 2) of Punjab state samples intersected the LMWL with d18O value of reported by Rao et al. (2017), which is almost the 7.35% and almost touched the GMWL with d18O same as the Craig’s (equation 1) GMWL (Bgure 4). value of 7.87% indicating recharge through the However, the slope of 7.47 (equation 3) of rainwater meteoric water and its evaporative eAects is samples (table 2, Bgure 4) showed very close to responsible for salinity. The overall slope of mon- GMWL and LMWL, but positioned on the right of soon line of 5.36 is less steep compared to the pre- these two lines with variation in intercept due to monsoon (6.76) and post-monsoon (6.11). This differences in the source of moisture and climatic showed occurrence of evaporation prior to the and geographic conditions (Clark and Fritz 1997; inBltration of water in the unsaturated zone. Sim- Singh et al. 2018). ilar results were also observed by Kulkarni et al. Figure 4 indicated that all groundwater samples (1989) for and Gurgaon groundwater. are close to the LMWL with deCection towards the It is found that the rain 2 and rain 3 are enriched right side. It suggests that the major source of as compared to 1st rain showing an evaporation J. Earth Syst. Sci. (2020) 129:109 Page 7 of 9 109

Table 2. Equations of the characteristics isotope lines of groundwater.

Correlation Equation Sl. no. Component type Regression equation coefBcient (r2) no. 1 Global meteoric water line (GMWL) dD=8d18O+10 – 1 presented by Craig (1961) 2 Local meteoric water line (LMWL) dD = 8.13d18O + 7.69 0.99 2 (Rao et al. 2017 for Punjab) 3 Rain water of study area dD = 7.47d18O + 0.48 0.97 3 4 Pre-monsoon samples dD = 6.76d18O À 6.07 0.92 4 5 Monsoon samples dD = 5.63d18O À 10.30 0.95 5 6 Post-monsoon samples dD = 6.11d18O À 6.72 0.93 6

Figure 5. Spatial variations in d18O.

salinity is found decreasing from 0.4 to 70% due to the dilution eAect by rain water mainly in open wells. Soon after the monsoon, the salinity found increased between 1 and 180% that indicated mechanism of mixing, suggesting possible qualita- tive recharge and discharge locations in the study area. The eAect of evaporation during groundwater recharge can be traced using the parameter, deu- terium excess (or d-excess). d18O vs. d-excess plot (Bgure 7), indicates that there is a large amount of scatter in zone B and majority of samples lies there and some of saline groundwater form a separate Figure 6. EC vs. d18O in groundwater samples. Beld in zone A. The eAect of evaporation during groundwater recharge can be traced using the parameter deuterium excess (or d-excess) where eAect (table 1). This eAect can be seen in the value of *10 from GMWL (equation 1) and *7.69 spatial variation map (Bgure 5)ofd18O in the from the LWML of the Punjab. Eightyone per cent study area. There is enrichment of isotopes and of groundwater samples showed seasonal variation expansion of enriched values can be found. It is in terms of isotope fractions during monsoon as clear that there is quick recharge of rainwater compared to pre-monsoon and 27% of samples during monsoon rains. during pre-monsoon showed negative d-excess The recharge of groundwater is recognized as values and others showed comparatively low variable in different wells (Bgure 6), whereas d-excess value suggesting a predominance of 109 Page 8 of 9 J. Earth Syst. Sci. (2020) 129:109

locations. Seasonal variation in isotope fractions in 81% of groundwater samples during the monsoon as compared to the pre-monsoon season showed negative d-excess values or low d-excess value that suggested predominance of evaporation in the pre- monsoon season due to semi-arid to arid condi- tions. These suggest that isotopes can be success- fully used for characterizing the salinity aAected groundwater in semi-arid areas as well for under- standing source and fate of groundwater for its eAective management. Figure 7. d18O vs. d-excess plot for groundwater samples. Acknowledgements evaporation in the pre-monsoon season due to Authors are thankful to Sehgal Foundation, semi-arid to arid conditions in the study area. Gurugram for providing the logistic support for However, except two open well groundwater sam- Beld work in the area. The work carried out in ples, all other have undergone evaporation in 2016–2017 is now being continued under Purpose variable degrees as suggested by the lower d-excess Driven Study (National Hydrology Project–NHP) values in comparison to LMWL (\7.69). But the at National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee and degree of fractionation is greater in those samples, funding from NHP is acknowledged. which has very low d-excess values. References 5. Conclusion Arya V, Singh S, Kumar A, Rao T, Chaudhary B, Rao G, Stable isotopes, d18O and dD, of groundwater and Saroha G P, Sharma M P, Singh A, Lal N and Kumar U rain water were used for characterization and 1999 Mapping of Soil and Water Resources of Mewat Area: source identiBcation of salinity aAected ground- Problems and Their Management Using Remote Sensing Techniques; Haryana State Remote Sensing Application water in the Mewat district of Haryana. The iso- Centre, Haryana Agriculture University, . 18 tope values of d O and dD for monsoon, pre- Blasch K W and Bryson J R 2007 Distinguishing sources of monsoon and post-monsoon together with their ground water recharge by using d2H and d18O; Ground interpretation with respect to meteoric water and Water 45(3) 294. LMWL and GMWL could eAectively identiBed the Census 2011 http://www.census2011.co.in/census/district/ 226-mewat.html. source of salinity aAected groundwater. CGWB, Central Ground Water Board 2012 Ground Water The pre-monsoon samples of groundwater from the Information Booklet, Mewat District, Haryana, www.cgwb. Mewat showed enrichment by more than 0.4% than gov.in/district˙proBle/haryana/mewat.pdf. the monsoon and post-monsoon samples for both Clark I D and Fritz P 1997 Environmental Isotopes in d18OanddD due to the evaporation eAect. The iso- Hydrogeology; CRC Press, Boca Raton, 352p. topic values were found close to the LMWL that Craig H 1961 Isotopic variations in meteoric waters; Science 133 1702–1703. pointed to major source of groundwater recharge is Ekwurzel B et al. 1994 Dating of shallow groundwater: the meteoric water. Intersection of the LMWL of two Comparison of the transient tracers 3 H/3 He, chloroCuo- open well groundwater samples and touching the rocarbons, and 85Kr; Water Resour. Res. 30 1693–1708. GMWL indicated recharge through the meteoric Gampson E K, Nartey V K, Golow A A and Akiti T T et al. water. The overall slope of the monsoon line that has 2015 Physical and Isotopic Characteristics in Peri-urban Landscapes: A Case Study at the Lower Volta River Basin, been found less steep, indicated evaporation prior to Ghana; Appl. Water Sci., https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201- the inBltration of water in the unsaturated zone. 015-0286-y. The recharge to groundwater has been found Hassen I, Hamzaoui-Azaza F and Bouhlila R 2016 Application variable in different wells; salinity found decreasing of multivariate statistical analysis and hydrochemical and between 0.4 and 70% due to dilution by rain water isotopic investigations for evaluation of groundwater qual- and soon after the monsoon, increased between 1 ity and its suitability for drinking and agriculture purposes: Case of Oum Ali-Thelepte aquifer, central Tunisia; Envi- and 180% that indicated the mechanism of mixing, ron. Monit. Assess. 188 135, https://doi.org/10.1007/ possible qualitative recharge and discharge s10661-016-5124-7. J. Earth Syst. Sci. (2020) 129:109 Page 9 of 9 109

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