Abstract:
The holy city of Lord Jagannath is situated on the sea shore of the Bay of Bengal in Odisha
state in India. Puri owes its existence to the great temple of Jagannath. The sanctity of Puri as
an important centre of pilgrimage is of remote antiquity. Puri is a city of high religious
importance and heritage value, details of the Puri Jagannath Temple, rituals, fairs and
festivals and related aspects are covered extensively. It is found that water levels in two wells
(Ganga and Yamuna) are falling inside the Jagannath Temple Puri, which is causing problem
for temple activities. The causes are studied by undertaking modeling study of rainfallrecharge
processes, surface water groundwater interactions and increasing demands due to
urbanization at basin scale. Hydrochemical analysis of groundwater samples indicates that pH
value is varying from 7 to 8.4 and Total Dissolved Solids is found to be in between 160 to
1816 mg /l. The TDS values indicate that the shallow groundwater in Puri is not saline.
Isotopes like O-18, Deuterium and water chemistry data have been used to identify the
groundwater source/s. The stable isotopic signatures indicate two different sources are active
in the city area. In most of the handpumps, water recharged by the surface water sources.
From the current investigation it is evident that few handpumps and most of the dug-wells,
isotopic signatures of water samples resembles with local precipitation. The groundwater
recharge is taking place from the North-southern direction. Visual MODFLOW has been
used for studying groundwater flow pattern and water budget aspects in Puri city. Different
scenarios have been developed through computation of groundwater level. It is suggested to
maintain water level in Samang lake in order to replenish the decline in groundwater level in
Ganga and Yamuna wells in the Lord Jagannath Temple complex. Further it is suggested to
control groundwater pumping from neighborhood in order to restore the water levels in the
temple wells.
