Distribution of environmental tritium in groundwaters of costal parts of Andhra Pradesh - inferences on groundwater dynamics

The indiscriminate pumping of groundwater for agricultural purposes and deficient monsoon during the last couple of years has created a huge gap in the demand and supply. In addition, seawater intrusion is another major issue in the coastal parts of India. In this study, groundwater dynamics in water scarce mandals of Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh was investigated. A total 54 no. of samples were collected from the study area. Fewer samples were collected during pre monsoon compared to post monsoon season due to unavailability of deep groundwater samples from the study area during pre monsoon season. The shallow groundwater (< 80 m below ground level, bgl) showed tritium in the range of 2.21 to 4.23 TU with average value of 2.95±0.59 TU. Deep groundwater (> 80 m bgl) showed tritium in the range of 0.37 to 3.19 TU with average value of 2.00±0.83 TU