International Indexed &Referred Research Journal, May, 2012. ISSN- 0975-3486, RNI-RAJBIL 2009/30097;VoL.

III *ISSUE-32

Research PaperGeography

Surface water potential of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal India.

* Sunanda Das May, 2012 * Assistant teacher of Geography , Bhatibari High School, Alipurduar
A B S T R A C T
Jalpaiguri district is one of the northern district of west Bengal which has high potential water resource.The surface water resources of any territory is significant from two considerations,viz.its utilization in irrigation and for recharge ground water.This paper is attempt to study the surface water resources of jalpaiguri district with regard to future prospects. Keywords:Surface water,potential,condition.

Objectives: The present study has undertaken to fulfill the following objectives * To assess the surface water potential which is the main source of irrigation during the winter sea son and the district is pronounced by many rivers likeTista Torsa,Jaldhaka.etc. * the irrigation status of district is till now under develop(15.70%), where as the district is enreach to surface water, so how do we develop irrigation by use of surface water. * Floods is a common seasonal phenomena of the district ,the study will show as its mitigations. Database : The information and data are taken mainly from three secondary sources . 1. Eastern Bengal and Assam dislrict Gazetteer Jalpaiguri . 2. Research paper on Monsoon meteorology. 3. Research paper on water management in West Ben gal. Study area The study area comprises districts of Jalpaiguri, west Bengal bounded by the latitude of 26? 16' to 27? 13' North and the longitudes of 87? 59' to 89? 53' East. The region covers an area 6227 sq.km. Which is 10.56%of the total geographical area of the state and inhabited by 3869675 persons (2011). Introduction Surface water is available on the surface of the earth in the form of rivers ,lakes, ponds ,canals ctc.However ,rivers comprise the most important source of surface water (Khullar).The district is blessed with a large number of major ,medium and small size rivers. Such as Tista ,Torsa ,Jajdhaka ,Sankosh ,Raidak. The west Bengal is the Land of rivers where numerous rivers and streams and their tributaries and dis-tributaries are flowing in different directions in various part of the state.Mostly they are perennial and

have great role in the life and economy of the people.Some of these highly potential in hydelpowers generations and irrigation.Moreover ther is a different in character of river between the plains and the coastal as well as hills areas of the state .The gradient of the rivers in the hills is steep and some of these are flowing in deep gorges.Some of the river are creating frequent floods due to siltation on their beds and construction of embankment on both sides of the rivers to check over flooding (M.M.Jana 2000).The river of West Bengal can be grouped into four ,one of them is the river from the Northern Mountain .Jalpaiguri district is situated on this region.In this paper we attempts to study the surface water potential of the district. Basic Characters related to Run-Off of jalpaiguri District 1.Broadly the river maintains its courses in the nature,adapting itself with changes in terrain characteristic and run off condition. But human interfercnce in many forms affect the natural balance and cause decline in the channel capacity.The channel capacity is deteriorated due to intence erosion in the catchment area ,where as the erosion in most cases is related to faulty landuse ,primary the destruction of forest . Deforestation in the upper catchment affect the run-off with silt load ,where the silts deposited in the channels raise the river bed. 2.The plain terrain in nature has the capability of storing the excess run-off in low land basin and depressions are progressively laid down with silts from the silt loden water and the level of the land thus raised.However there had been interference man through premature reclamation of the lands by embankments of the rivers for settelment and agriculture use.Such interference had affected the efficiency of the rivers. 3.The variation of rainfall in the basin ares and temporal distribution rainfall sometimes appear to be

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RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION

International Indexed &Referred Research Journal, May, 2012. ISSN- 0975-3486, RNI-RAJBIL 2009/30097;VoL.III *ISSUE-32

Table-01 Available water resource in five major river basin of jalpaiguri district 1991 Sl no. Name of the Area ('oooha.) Surface Water Total Water rivers basin (Mem/Ha) resource 1. Sankosh 11.50 118.70 122.30 2. Raidak 70.00 95.20 98.70 3. Torsa 223.20 53.40 59.20 4. Jaldhaka 313.20 40.40 43.10 5. Tista 152.50 210.60 213.50 Source:water management in west Bengal:S.C. Chakraborty,IIM May 1991 Table-02 Relative Status of water in Major river basins of jalpaiguri district (1991). Sl.no. Name of the Demand Ground Surface Water Relative Status rivers basin Water 1. Sankosh 96 55 0.0 491(+) 2. Raidak 574 328 0.0 2338(+) 3. Torsa 1821 521 0.0 4237(+) 4. Jaldhaka 2105 1283 0.0 3783(+) 5. Tista 1087 648 0.0 12202(+) Source:Water Management in West Bengal S.C. Chakraborty IIM(1991) controlling factors in discharge in the basin.In the this regard due to several environmental factors of West Bengal ,the North Bengal received very high which soil texture is the most important. A attempt rainfall(3000 mm.) compare to the 3 other part of has been made by S.C. Chakraborty (1991) on 26 West B engal.The flood in North Bengal rivers are river basins of West Bengal.There shall be a shortfall associated with heavy rainfall in the Himalayas in- of water in majority of basins (18) mostly in the southduces soil erosion and wide spread landslides ,which ern section.In case of majority of northern rivers ,there in turn block the channels of the streams with sudden will be surplus of water after utilisation ,both ground release of the blockade the streams burst in flash floods and surface water resource (Chakraborty,1991). See over the foothill plains in Terai and Duars region. Table 1&2 4.The North Bengal rivers coming fron Himalayas Conclusion :- In conclusion the back ground of little mountainous region carry huge amount of silts due to scope for extending of agricultural land and the imintence erosion in their catshment area. The erosion pending necessity of meeting the ever increasing has become alarming due to loss of forest as a result demand for food and the increasing demand from of tea industry and settlement.Moreover these rivers domestic, power , induslrial,environment mangemant, are perenial.Progressively with deposition of sits the navingation and other factors, there will be increase river beds have been raused and the capacity of the of the utilization of the water resources of the district in near future. The inefficiency and backwardness of channels reduced. Estimation Of Surface Water Successful agricul- utilization of water for agricultural use stem from ture operation of north Bengal is still being dependent problem of ecological , socioeconomic, technological on the single most dominant climatic parameters that and potential in nature and augmentation of use will is rainfall.But even that rainfall through copious (on depend on the removal of such problems and through average 1600mm / year) is characteristics by the sea- scientific management like eco-development apsonal concentration (about 80 percent in kharif sea- proach, symbiosis of traditional and modern and inson ),uncertainty and variability .As a result of these tegrated planning (chatterjee ,1995). For meeting the ,floods and drought conditions prevail with water shortfall of demand proper land management and deficiency even in areas receiving adequate seasonal water management decision through an iterative prorainfall.The surface water is not available throughout cess are to be taken for judicious utilization of water the year and there is spatial and seasonal variation in (chakra borty 1991).

R E F E R E N C E
1.Grunning ,J.F.(1991) :Eastern Bengal Assam District Gazetters ;Jalpaiguri,The Pioneer Press ,Allahabad ;Repriinted 2008. 2.Bhattacharya ,P.K. (1982) :On the contribution of different low pressure system for production of Monsoon rainfall ,Basic Research in Moonsoon Meteorology ;Jadavpur University Press ,Calcutta. 3.Chakraborty ,S.C.(1991) : Water management in West Bengal ;Recerch Paper ;Indian Institute of Management ,Calcutta.

4.Jana ,M.M.(2000) :West Bengal Rivers and their hydrological characteristics ;Jn.Geographical thought ;University of North Bengal press ,Darjeeling .pp. 01-18. 5.Chatterjee ,N.(1995) :Irrigated Agriculture ,Rawat publication ,Jaipur .pp. 297-314. 6.Saha ,P.(2000) :Floods and Drainage in West Bengal ;Jn.Geographical Throught ;University of North Bengal press ,Darjeeling .pp.19-40. 7.Khuller ,D.R.(2007):India a Comprehensive Geography ;Kalyani publishers ,Kolkata .pp.463-494.

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