Tarai and Bhabar zones of India along the Himalayan foothills as potential groundwater reservoirs

Abstract

Alluvial deposits of the sloping plains below the foothills of the Himalaya consist of thick permeable beds of cobbles, pebbles, coarse sands, and minor clay bands in the Bhabar zone, a northwest-southeast-trending belt of relatively arid country whose southern limit is marked by a line of springs. In the flatter swampy terrain of the Tarai belt below the spring line, the deposits are predominantly hard clays and kankar with intercalated sand and gravel lenses and beds in which ground water occurs under artesian conditions. Exploratory drilling has shown that adequate supplies of good- quality water are also available in the Bhabar zone from perched ground- water bodies as well as the deep water-table aquifer.