Cuddalore District

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At Sultanpur, migratory birds visit an artificial lake

Organizer: Department of Civil Engineering, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar

Venue: Department of Civil, Engineering, Annamalai University

Description:
Water is a vital natural resource essential for life and a precious national asset. It is a scarce resource which has to be planned, developed, conserved and managed on an integrated and environmentally sound basis; keeping in view the socio-economic aspects and needs of mankind. It is one of the most challenging tasks to ensure adequate water and food to our present and future generations. The availability of water in our country is highly variable both in space and time. Climate change, failure of monsoons, population explosion, urbanization, rising demands and anthropogenic factors lead to significant water stress. Agriculture is the mainstay of Indian economy and an assured irrigation water supply is of utmost importance for food security. Hence water resources are to be managed judiciously to guarantee adequate supplies of dependable quantity and quality, which is of major concern today.

This presentation provides information on the process that needs to be followed to construct a deep tube well for agricultural purposes in Pavalangudi village of Vridhachalam Taluk, Cuddalore district, Tamilnadu. The extent of area is 100 acres. The presentation covers three stages of ground water exploration - surface, subsurface methods, well development and the methodology adopted.

Chidambaram is the taluk headquarters, located at about 250 km south of Chennai on east coast road [ECR] in Cuddalore district of Tamilnadu. It is a coastal taluk having three panchayat unions, Keerapalayam, Melbhuvanagiri and Portonovo. Chidambaram is the most important pilgrim center of the country, and is blessed with the Lord Nataraja temple. The temple town is also known as Bhuloka Kailash and Lord Nataraja, a cosmic dancer, represent the ‘Aakash’ form which is one among the ‘Pancha Boothas’. 

Though this temple town is blessed with such historically important temple, the Nature has cursed Chidambaram area with brackish water, which is also one among the ‘Pancha Boothas’. The total aerial extent of this taluk is 649 square km and the most part of the taluk is confined between the rivers Vellar and Kollidam, which is a distributary of the river Cauvery. Some few lakhs years back the Kollidam river might have flown even north of Chidambaram town and might have receeded subsequently southwards to the present position. Due to this invasion, the entire area might have been changed as marshy lands and mangrove forests. The salinity of ground water may be attributable to the fluvio marine origin sediments, which might have been deposited during this paleo invasion by the river and due to the back water flow. Chidambaram is about 15 km west of sea shore and the mean sea level is 5.1 metres. Geologically this taluk is a sedimentary terrain and the eastern parts are covered by the quaternary unconsolidated formations of clay, black clay, soils, alluvium, silts, kankar and laterites of recent to sub recent age and the western parts by the tertiary formations of Mio-Pliocene age represented by litho units - sand stones, grits, clays with lignite seams and pebble beds.