GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES

CENTRAL GROUND WATER BOARD


GROUND WATER INFORMATION BOOKLET
KOPPAL DISTRICT, KARNATAKA
SOUTH WESTERN REGION
BANGALORE
DECEMBER 2008
2
FOREWORD

Ground water contributes to about eighty percent of the drinking
water requirements in the rural areas, fifty percent of the urban water
requirements and more than fifty percent of the irrigation requirements of the
nation. Central Ground Water Board has decided to bring out district level ground
water information booklets highlighting the ground water scenario, its resource
potential, quality aspects, recharge discharge relationship, etc., for all the
districts of the country. As part of this, Central Ground Water Board, South
Western Region, Bangalore, is preparing such booklets for all the 27 districts of
Karnataka state, of which six of the districts fall under farmers distress category.
The Koppal district Ground Water Information Booklet has been
prepared based on the information available and data collected from various
state and central government organisations by several hydro-scientists of Central
Ground Water Board with utmost care and dedication. This booklet has been
prepared by Shri K.N.Nagaraja, Scietist-D, under the guidance of Dr. K. Md.
Najeeb, Superintending Hydrogeologist, Central Ground Water Board, South
Western Region, Bangalore. The figures were prepared by S/Sri.
H.P.Jayaprakash, Scientist-C and K.Rajarajan, Assistant Hydrogeologist. The
efforts of Report processing section in finalising and bringing out the report in this
format are commendable.
I take this opportunity to congratulate them for the diligent and
careful compilation and observation in the form of this booklet, which will certainly
serve as a guiding document for further work and help the planners,
administrators, hydrogeologists and engineers to plan the water resources
management in a better way in the district.





(T.M.HUNSE)
Regional Director

3
KOPPAL DISTRICT AT A GLANCE
GENERAL INFORMATIOM

STATISTICS
i) Geographical Area 5559 sq.km.
ii) No. Of Taluks 4, Koppal, Kushtagi. Gangavati and
Yelaburga.
No of Hoblis/villages 20/628
iii) Population (as on 2001 census) 1196089,
Density 215 persons/sq.km
1
iv) Average Annual Rainfall 572 mm
GEOMORPHOLOGY
Major Physiographic Units 2
2
Major Drainages 3
LAND USE
a) Forest Area (sq.km) 294.51
3
b) Net Area Sown (sq.km) 3807.00
4 MAJOR SOIL TYPES 1. Black Cotton Soil
2. Red Soil
3. Red Sandy Soil
5 AREA UNDER PRINCIPAL CROPS (as
on31.3.06)in ha.
Paddy
Jowar
Bajra
Maize
Sugarcane
Vegetables
Pulses
Oil seeds
Mulberry


78803
50320
94687
16332
331
4901
29409
158103
15620
IRRIGATION BY DIFFERENT SOURCES (ha)
Dug wells 1366
Bore wells 45851
Tanks 355
Canals 47138
Other Sources 0.0
Lift Irrigation 1309
6
Gross Area Irrigated 96019
No .of Ground Water structures
Domestic BW
Piped water supply



4985
299

4
NUMBER OF GROUND WATER
MONITORING WELLS OF CGWB (As on
31.03.2007)

Dug Wells 30
7
Piezometers 7
10 PREDOMINANT GEOLOGICAL
FORMATIONS
Peninsular gneissic complex
consisting of Granites, Gneisses and
Dharwar group consisting of schists
HYDROGEOLOGY
Major Water Bearing Formations Weathered and fractured Granites,
Gneisses and schists,
Premonsoon Depth to Water Level (2006) 4.5 to 16.50 mbgl
Postmonsoon Depth to Water Level (2006) 1.15 to 16.24 mbgl
Premonsoon
trends
available for
14 stations
4 Rising trends range
between 0.009 and
0.352 m/year
10 falling trends
range between 0.019
and 0.96 m/year
11
Long Term Water Level Trend (1997-2006)( in
m per year)
Postmonsoon
trends
available for
22 stations
6 Rising trends range
between 0.079 and
0.367 m/year
16 falling trends
range between 0.057
and 1.815 m/year
GROUND WATER EXPLORATION BY
CGWB AS ON MARCH 2007

EW (Depth Range /Discharge range) 19 Depth 40- 80m
Discharge 0.1-7.6 lps?
OW(Depth Range /Discharge range) 17 Depth - 11- 80 m

Transmissitivity (m
2
/day) 0.2 to 900
12
Storitivity (S) 3.2 X 10
-4
to 5.84 X 10
-4

GROUND WATER QUALITY
Presence of chemical constituents more than
permissible limits
Fluoride. Nitrates and TDS in few
packets.
13
Type of water Potable to Brakish
DYNAMIC GROUND WATER RESOURCES
(2004) IN HAM

Annual replenishable ground water resource 701.49
Net annual ground draft 337.80
Projected demand for Domestic and Industrial
use up to 2025
60.48
14
Stage of ground water Development (%)

48.12
5
15 WATER MANAGEMENT TRAINING
PROGRAMMES ORGANISED
On 13
th
and 14
th
November2003
WMTP programme was conducted on
Artificial Recharge to Ground Water
techniques at Koppal town. There
were about 120 participiants.


16 EFFORTS OF ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE AND
RAINWATER HEAVESTING
-
17 GROUND WATER CONTROL AND
REGULATION
No of OE Blocks
No of Critical Blocks
Not Notified

3 (part)
1 (part)
MAJOR GROUND WATER PROBLEMS AND
ISSUES


18








Rainfall is erratic, irregular and deficit,
Application of traditional farming and
irrigation methods, unscientific
develop ment of groundwater,
Brackishness salinity of groundwater
along the major river courses and
command areas ,and nitrate, fluoride
problems.

6

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The Koppal district came to existence on 25
th
august1997,
bifurcated from Raichur district of Karnataka with a geographical area of 5559
sq km, located in the northern part of the state with four taluks namely Koppal,
Yelburga Gangavati,and Kustagi. It lies between 15 09 16 01 north latitude
and 7546 76 48 east longitude. It is known to be a backward district among
the northern part of the state and situated in the old Hyderabad Karnataka
region. The district has 588 inhabited and 40 uninhabited villages with total
population of 1196089, as per 2001 census, with density of 215 persons/sq km
and decadal growth of 24.94%. The area falls in the Tugabhadra sub-basin of the
Krishna basin. Tugabhadra river flowing in southern boundary in north easterly
direction. Koppal district is surrounded by Bagalokot district in the north, east by
Raichur ,south by Bellary and West by Gadag districts.
1.1 Administrative set-up
The district for administrative conveninence has been divided in to
4 taluks , namely Gangavathi, Koppal, Kustagi and Yelaburga. These four taluks
are divided in to 20 hoblies. these consist of 596 inhabited villages and 41 un-
inhabited villages, 4 town municipalites. A administrative map is presented as
Fig-1.
Table-1 Taluk wise area and population details in Koppal district( as per 2001 census)
source:- district at aglance 2005-06
Taluk Area in sq
kms/,no.of
hoblies
No of
inhabited
villages
No .of
uninhabited
villages
Total
population as
per 2001 census
Gangavathi 1328 8 149 9 406334
Koppal 1375 4 144 13 314051
Kushtagi 1366 4 164 13 239331
Yelburga 1490 4 139 5 236373

1.2 Work carried out by CGWB
The central ground water board has carried out systematic
Hydrogeological surveys Reappraisal Hydro geological surveys and Tunga-
Bhadra canal command area surveys during 1976-1979 and ground water
exploration, ground water regime monitoring etc.
1.3 Basin and Drainage
The district is part of Krishna basin, the main streams draining the
area are Maskinala, Ilkal-nadi and Hirenala. These are Ephemaral in nature,
these come under Tungabhadra sub-basin. The drainage exhibit dentritic to sub-
dentric with drainage density varies from 1.4 to7.0kms/sq.km. A drainage map is
presented as Fig-2
1.4 Land use
In the district land use is recorded about 69% of the area is net
sown during 2005-06 and forest occupied by about5.3% and total land not
available for cultivation is about10% area like non agricultural, barren etc, and
other un-cultivable land is about 3% details are shown in table-2.
7

Table-2 showing land utilization in Koppal district 2005-06 (in hectares)
Taluk geographical
area
Forest Non
agricultural
Barren Cultivable
waste
Net
Area
sown
Perma-
nent
pasture
Gangavathi 132131 14482 7680 4651 560 78012 7193
Koppal 136755 10779 20401 430 91836 1486
Kustagi 135779 4110 7626 2361 811 104298 3898
Yelburga 147830 80 3163 2825 767 106554 2098
Total 552495 29451 38870 16627 2568 380700 14675

2.0 RAIN FALL AND CLIMATE
Koppal district experiences a semi-arid type climate characterised
by hot summer and low rainfall. It is cool and pleasant during major part of the
year except during the summer months of March to middle of June. The coldest
period is December to January minimum temperatures reaches up to 16C and
maximum reaches 45C during hot summer district characterized by dryness for
the major part of the year because of less rainfall there is pleasant monsoon
season. The annual normal rain fall is 571.92 mm and normally rain commences
from June and continuous up to November. Heavy rainfall during the months of
September and October about 65% of which is south west monsoon with normal
average rain days of 40 in a year. In general rainfall decreases from west to east
the district falls northern median region of state.

3.0 GEOMORPHOLOGY AND SOIL TYPES
The district moderately plain with shallow troughs and mounds of
granites hills at scattered places in rugged topography .with highest peaks are
found at Hanumasagar 728mts,622mts at ginigera, and697mts at benekal.
Above mean sea level with average elevation of the district is about 500mts. The
main streams draining the district are Maskinala, Hirehalla, Ilkalnadi and their
small tributaries which are of ephemeral in nature and joining to Tungabhadra
reservoir. The general drainage density varies 1.2-7.0kms/sqk m
Soils are the weathering product of parent rock. The district
characterized by large stretch of barren plains covered with black soils this
may be product of biotitic schists and amphibolite,hornblende. Black cotton soil is
seen in schistose terrain and gneissic and granite terrain. Red soil in granites
and grey granite area. Nalas are generally filled with loose sand, kanker mixed
grey sandy soil is seen.

4.0 GROUND WATER SCENARIO

4.1 Hydrogeology
The district is mainly underlain by gneisses, granites and schists.
The hard rocks as they do not have any primary porosity however, weathering,
fracturing, joints and tectonic features likes folds and faults have secondary
porosity and permeability. Which has improved water yielding, capacity of the
8
wells. The main source of recharge is precipitation. Weathered thickness is
reported minimum of 1m and maximum of 20mbgl nearer to nalas. In general
ground water available in the weathered zone under phreatic condition and
under confined to semi-confined conditions in the jointed and fractured formation.
Ground water developed through dug wells, dug cum bore wells and bore wells.
Dug wells are common, used for irrigation as well as for domestic purposes. Its
depth ranges from minimum of 1.7m mbgl to maximum of 15.7m mbgl. Pink
granite is more susceptible for weathering than gray granite. So, pink granite is
good aquifer than gray granite. In granite gneisses the yield of the wells reported
are in the range of 4-100m3/day in dug wells, and in dug cum bore wells it
ranges between 28.8-42.3m3 withstanding pumping of 4-5hr/day and the specific
capacity ranges between 35.0-240.5m3/day/m. The wells taping schistose
formation is poor yielding compared to granite and gneiss formations. The
alluvium found along a major nala course as thin lenses with thickness of 6-8m
mbgl. The diameter of wells are 3.5 to 5.00m bgl, the specific capacity reported
was between 230.4 to 533.0 m3/day/m. the bore wells drilled by formers as well
as govt agencies for domestic and irrigation purposes with depth range of 40-
70m and reported yield of bore wells less than 1 lps to 7.6lps. The promising
zone is 30-60mbgl. The central ground water board in the district has 33 net
work stations, which are being monitored four times in a year ie January, May (
pre monsoon ) August and November (post monsoon). A hydrogeological map is
presented as Fig-3

Water levels
Pre monsoon depth to water level during 2006 (Fig-4) recorded in
the range of minimum of 4.5mts and maximum of 16.50mts .In the district major
parts of Koppal,Yelburga,Kushtagi taluks are having depth to water levels in the
range of 10-20m. In major parts of Gangavathi taluk depth to water levels
recorded in the range of 5-10 m range and a small patch is having 2-5m range.
Post monsoon depth to water level during 2006 (Fig-5) range from
1.15m to 16.24m. Study of distribution of percentage of observation of wells
during November 2006 show 30.77% having depth to water levels in the range
of 5.0-10.0 m bgl, 38.46% wells have recorded water levels in the range of 10.0-
20.0 m bgl. A small patch in Gangavathi taluk is having water levels of less than
2mbgl and a small patch of more than 20m bgl is observed around in Kushtagi
and Yelburga taluk.

Long term water level trends
Premonsoon long term water level trends for the period between
1997-2006 is available for 14 National hydrograph stations in the district. At 4
stations the rising water level trends range between 0.009 and 0.352 m/year. In
remaining 10 hydrograph stations falling trends range between 0.019 and 0.96
m/year. Postmonsoon long term water level trends are available for 22 national
hydrograph stations (1997-2006), of which 6 have rising trends, range between
0.079 and 0.367 m/year. Remaining 16 falling trends range between 0.057 and
1.815 m/year.
9



4.2 Results of ground water exploration
CGWB has drilled 19 exploratory and 17 observation wells so far
under its ground water exploration programme. The depth range of these wells
range between 11.00 to 80.00 m and discharge of the wells ranges between 0.01
to 7.6 lps. The storitivity of the aquifers encountered ranges between 3.2 X 10
-4

and 5.6 X 10
-4
and transmissivity values ranges between 0.2 and 900 m
2
per
day.
4.3 Ground Water Resources
As per the 1997 GEMS methodology ground water resources
estimated as on march 31
st
2004 are presented in Table-3A and Table-3B.
Table-3A
Taluk Recharge
from
rainfall
during
monsoon
(ham)
Recharge
from rainfall
during
nonmonsoon
(ham)
Recharge
from
other
source
during
monsoon
season
Recharge
from
other
source
during
non
monsoon
season
Annual
replinhable
G.W
.resource
Net G.W.
availability
Gangavathi 4124 12554 780 11680 29132 28649
Koppal 5626 4648 945 3954 15174 14684
Kushtagi 3411 3375 894 3542 11225 10919
Yelburga 7091 4451 1057 3894 16495 15897

Table-3B
categarisation of area
in % based on stage
of development
Taluk Irrigation
draft in
ham
Domestic
&
Industrial
draft
in ham
Total
G.W.d
raft
in ham
Projected
draft for
domestic &
industrial
draft for
year 2025
in ham
G.W.
availabili
ty for
irrigation
in ham

S
a
f
e

s
e
m
i
c
r
i
t
i
c
a
l


C
r
i
t
i
c
a
l


O
v
e
r

e
x
p
l
o
i
t
e
d

Gangavathi 5732 663 6393 1145 22677 43 57
Koppal 9337 594 9932 1005 6180 28 72
Kushtagi 3787 656 4253 739 6833 58 27 15
Yelburga 12544 467 13202 1134 5448 12 5 - 83

From the above table it can be concluded that major parts of
Koppal, Gangavathi and Yelaburga are coming under over exploited category. A
map showing categorisation of areas as per ground water utilisation is presented
as Fig-6


10
5.0 GROUND WATER DEVELOPMENT
As on 31.3.2006 in the district total of 33526 I.P Sets are present
consuming 62.60 lakh units/year. Talukwise net area irrigated in the district
during 2005-06 is presented in the table-4. During the period in general about
49% of irrigated area is irrigated by source of ground water through wells and
bore wells.
Table -4 showing net area irrigated in Koppal district 2005-06 in hectares
Taluk Canals Tanks Wells Borewells Lift
irrigation
Other
source
Total
Gangavathi 41278 0 0 6370 0 0 47648
Koppal 5860 105 566 18478 1309 0 26318
Kushtagi 0 150 0 8326 0 0 8476
Yelburga 0 100 800 12677 0 0 13577
District total 47138 355 1366 45851 1309 0 96019

Drinking water system
In the district except Yelburga town in all other taluk head quarters
drinking water requirement is met by surface water. At Yeburga town and at other
rural areas drinking and domestic water supply is met through borewells. total of
4985 borewells are drilled for rural drinking water supply out of this 299 are used
for piped water supply schemes, 687 are used for mini water supply schemes.

6.0 GROUND WATER QUALITY
As per hydrochemical data of N.H.S of May 2003 in the district
E.C.values range from 730-2870 micro mhos /cm at 25c is recorded. Chloride is
in the range of 43 to639 mg/l and floride in the range of 0.6 to 2.7 mg/l as based
on the Bureau of Indian standerads recommendations for drinking water the
water E.C having less than 750 micro mhos/cm at 25C is desirable and
unsuitable more than3000 micro mhos/cm at 25C.The concentration of fluoride
is distributed in the district in the range of 1.0 to1.5 mg/l up to maximum of 2.7
mg/l. The desirable limits for drinking purposes is less than 1 ppm. The
concentration beyond 1 ppm is unsuitable, noticed as pockets in Gangavathi and
Kushtagi taluks. A ground water quality map is presented as Fig-7

7.0 GROUND WATER CONSERVARION
The soil and moisture conservation works on water shed basis are
being executed under different centrally sponsored ,state sector and district
sector schemes .The important schemes are;
(1)National watershed Development project for rain fed areas.
(2)River valley project.
(3)Desert development programmed
(4)special component plan
(5)Sumpurna gramina rojgar yojana/EAS.

Koppal district with geographical area of 552495 ha. Out of this
296151 ha is under rain-fed agriculture. As on 31-03-2002 about 112217 Ha
11
developed on various watershed schemes details of taluk wise development as
well as scheme wise in Ha is given in table-5.

Table 5 Different watershed development schemes in progress in the district.
Name of
the
schemes
Gangavathi Koppal Kustagi Yelburga Total area
covered
No. of
water-
shed
SCP 164 141 138 138 581 -
EAS 427 1532 1345 1611 4915 20
DDP - 3253 3309 3205 9767 87
NWDPRA - 5679 2527 9618 17824 5
RVP - 19609 6156 39552 63317 52
others - - 13813 - 1318 1
Total 591 30214 27288 54124 112217 165


8.0 AWARENESS AND TRAINING ACTIVITY
Training programme on ground water management was organised
at J.H.Patel Auditorium, Zilla Panchayat office, Koppal During 13/11/2003 and
14/11/2003. Thirty trainees from various state government departments, NGOs,
Educational Institutions from Koppal district participated in the training
programme Officers of CGWB, SWR, presented seven lecture topics on the
theme. Field visit to roof top harvesting site was arranged in Koppal town, Visit
was also arranged to the construction site of Ashraya Housing Scheme being
executed by Government of Karnataka and rooftop rainwater harvesting scheme
finalised as part of field demonstration.

9.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
1) There is no scope for future ground water development in overexploited
areas. the density of observation wells may be increased, water
conservation measures may be adopted in larger scale, and microlevel
ground water studies may be carried out.
2) The ground water resources may be reassessed to give the more recent
picture.
3) In the safe areas there is scope for ground water development in
Gangavathi taluk 43% area is safe,10261 borewells are feasible, 4514
borewell are feasible in kushtagi taluk and 748 borewells are feasible
in Yelburga taluk these bore wells are feasible with a annual draft of
1.1ham/well this may be taken up in a phased manner with annual growth
rate of 5% in number.
4) The bore wells may be constructed up to a depth of 70m, and top
weathered zone may be sealed with blank casing pipe to avoid well
collapse.
5) For construction of bore wells remote sensing and other techniques may
be used to minimize failures and expected yields are obtained which can
irrigate a minimum 1.5 ha/well.
12
6) Attempts can be made to locate suitable sites for borewell construction,
adjacent to canal/distributary, so that wherever bad quality water is
encountered it can be mixed with good quality canal water and supplied
for irrigation. This may help to supply more water at the tail end of the
canal command area.
7) Where the quality of ground water is unsuitable (poor quality) for irrigation
use proper leaching arrangements to avoid salt accumulation and water
logging by improving the drainage system.
8) The spacing in between two borewells may be kept about 300m to avoid
mutual interferences. This may reduce up to 150m in canal/tank
command areas.
9) The 1
st
phase of C.G.W.B. ground water exploration is completed for the
depth of less than100m, it is necessary to identify the deep aquifers
beyond 100m.
10) In O.E.areas, in areas with deep water levels and areas with poor quality
ground water for artificial recharge with desilted surface water body like
tanks etc and rain water may be used through dry dug wells using dug
well recharge method.
11) In the district probable roof top rainwater to be harvested in the unit area
is about1.827m3, it may be used for artificial recharge, with suitable
structure.





13



14



15



16



17



18



19