Suresh Gyan Vihar International Journal of Water and Research Vol 1 Issue I July-Dec 2015 ISSN:- XXXX:XXXX Fluoride, Iron and Nitrate affected areas of Punjab Gopal Krishan 1,2 , R.P. Singh 1 M.S. Rao 1 , Sushil Gupta 3 and P.K. Tiwari 4 1 National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee- 247667 (Uttarakhand), India 2 IGB Groundwater Resilience Project, British Geological Survey, United Kingdom 3 Central Ground Water Board, India 4 Wapcos, New Delhi, India *Corresponding author: drgopal.krishan@gmail.com Abstract The inorganic chemicals present naturally or due to human activity in soils, sediments and rocks enter, as point sources or non-point sources, into groundwater system and degrade its quality thus making it unusable for drinking and irrigation. Identifying the areas affected by these contaminants help in treating the groundwater in such areas. In the present study, the fluoride, iron and nitrate affected areas are mapped in Punjab so that the remedial measures can be taken for making the water utilizable for drinking and irrigation. The concentrations of fluoride, iron and nitrate have been found up to 11.30 mg/l, 25 mg/l and 1180mg/l, respectively. Among the three pollutants nitrate is more intense and widely spread due to unplanned and uncontrolled human activities. The source of fluoride lies deep in Central Himalayas and it is released into water as a result of weathering, deforestation, road construction, fast developing settlements and hill-blasting. The overgrazing, unplanned and unscientific deforestation off the unconsolidated rocks have deleterious effects of high proportion on the soil and water environment and triggers the iron release into water transporting the sediments downslope. It is recommended that these activities should be controlled by mass awareness and legislation in combination. Keywords: Fluoride, nitrate, iron, contamination, Punjab, Indo-Gangetic basin Introduction Groundwater sustainability has been in jeopardy as a result of rapid pace of agricultural development, industrialization and urbanization which have resulted in the overdevelopment and contamination of groundwater resources (Chopra and Krishan, 2014a; Banks et al., 1995; Frengstad et al. 2001; Krishan et al, 2013b, 2014a; Lapworth et al., 2014a,b; MacDonald et al., 2013, 2014; Rao et al., 2014). In India, the available groundwater is generally potable but localized occurrence of various chemical constituents exceed the permissible limits given in the guidelines of Bureau of Indian Standards (IS: 10500, 2012) for drinking water. It is observed that the concentration of few constituents exceed the permissible limit at places in Punjab. The groundwater contaminants like arsenic, fluoride and iron are of geogenic origin whereas nitrates, phosphates, heavy metals are the result of human activities. Study area Punjab state (Fig. 1) is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country and for the same reason this state is called the ‘Bread Basket of India’. Punjab state is bounded by Jammu & Kashmir in the north-east, Himachal Pradesh in east and south-east, Haryana in south and by Rajasthan in south and west and shares the international boundary with Pakistan on the western side. Three perennial rivers namely Beas, Satluj and Ravi along with their tributaries drain the