International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 9, September 2014 1 ISSN 2250-3153 www.ijsrp.org Analysis of Aquifer System and Impact of Snowmelt Water on Groundwater Quality of Shallow and Deeper Aquifers: A Comparative Study in Upper Ganga Basin for Stretch between Muzaffarnagar to Rishikesh Sadiqa Abbas 1 , Gauhar Mahmood 2 1 Research Scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 2 Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi Abstract- Ganga river originating from Gangotri in Himalayas has got very strategic location from water resource point of view. It receives water in three different seasons first from July to October called monsoon season, second from April to June called snow-melt season and third occurs occasionally in January, February, March where the scanty rainfall occurs due to western disturbances. It is occupied by number of watersheds which are generally active in monsoon season. This study analyses hierarchy of micro-watersheds which are developed as microwatershed-1 from glacial melt to Gangtori, microwatershed 2 from Gangotri to Rishikesh and micro watershed-3 from Rishikesh to Muzaffarnagar with their correlation to shallow and deeper aquifers with their physical characteristics like pH, TDS, EC etc. Since the glacial melt has got lower pH, electrical conductivity, TDS and temperature and also global warming further reduces these values which has been reflected from the various groundwater structures such as handpumps, shallow and deep tubewells from the microwatershed-3 surveyed during the course of study Groundwater in the study area was found to be varying from alkaline to acidic due to inter-mixing of glacial melt water. The groundwater characteristics of acidic and alkaline found to be varying and mostly occupied by shallow and deeper aquifers, whereas the shallow aquifers are acidic at places and deeper aquifers are alkaline in nature. I. INTRODUCTION ndia is divided into three physiographic units these are extra Peninsular India i.e Himalayan region, Indo-gangetic plains and Peninsular India i.e. central and Southern parts. There are direct impacts of precipitation on activities of extra-peninsular India to the rivers in Indus and Ganges system. The Upper Ganga basin is one of the larger part of the extra peninsular India. The study area was selected in parts of Upper Ganga basin in a closed loop manner in sub-basin of upper Ganga region starting from Muzaffarnagar, Deoband, Roorkee, Haridwar and Rishikesh with its peak topography as Dehradoon, and from Dehradoon to Saharanpur, Shyamli to Muzaffarnagar via Bopa Road. The Upper Ganga basin is occupied by a number of watersheds which are generally active in the monsoon season however major watersheds feed Ganag river and micro- watersheds feed groundwater. The study area is a mixture of geomorphological and hydro- geo-morphological units such as plain topography covering hills and valleys from upland plain to plain land and low-land areas. Slight variations in soil type were found in the study area. The area in general has non-reactive lithological conditions owing to sandy formation where geo-chemistry is very much conducive to maintain water quality without any chemical reaction and as such no salinity on percolated water felt by geology of area. The study area was chosen in such a way so as to form a close loop of watershed with varying morphometric condition in order to develop the mini-microshed of glacial melt water for analyzing the aquifer system and studying the impact of snowmelt water on groundwater quality of shallow and deep aquifers for a stretch between Muzaffarnagar to Rishikesh. Since the lithological conditions are non-reactive in nature therefore it may be analyzed that the recharging through the glacial melt water is the only source on the change of groundwater quality. In order to verify this we have taken a long stretch of the investigation which is about 80 km in non-glacial melt water areas. In which we found that the groundwater is alkaline in nature which is found to be natural. In this way precisely we can say that the global warming has got its impact on shallow aquifers only due to recharging by snow-melt water as a result the shallow aquifers are acidic in nature at places and form unnatural character of groundwater, however deeper aquifers are unaffected and contain the natural groundwater with alkaline character. It was found that there are drastic changes in the hydro- geochemical environment and the quality of groundwater varying from alkaline to acidic environment due to inter-mixing of glacial melt water which may further be acidified due to gradual increase in global warming. In this respect relationship have been developed among the key factors of hydro geochemical fecies and the impact assessment of groundwater quality in the lower part of Upper Ganga basin from Rishikesh to Muzaffarnagar. II. OBJECTIVE & SCOPE In order to make a comparison between shallow and deep aquifers taking four parameters i.e pH, TDS, EC and temperature into consideration qualitative mapping of area was done based on:  Analysis of groundwater pH in study area I