Himanshu Kulkarni and Indian Hydrogeology

In this episode of The Water Data Podcast, host Veena Srinivasan speaks with Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni, hydrogeologist and co-founder of ACWADAM, about groundwater science in India – from basalt aquifers and rural irrigation to springshed revival in the Himalayas and participatory groundwater management.

This episode was recorded in November 2025 on the sidelines of a two-day event celebrating the life and work of Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni, marking his recognition with the 2025 International Water Prize by the University of Oklahoma. Because the conversation was long and deeply insightful, we’re releasing it in two parts – this is Part 1.

In this episode, Dr. Kulkarni traces the origins of his groundwater journey – from early memories of the first wells and springs he encountered, to studying geology and being mentored by an exceptional hydrogeology teacher Vilasrao Salunkhe. He then takes us into his landmark field research in Pabal in rural Maharashtra, where detailed well surveys and long-term measurements revealed how basalt aquifers behave, why groundwater availability varies sharply across the same landscape, and how farming decisions around wells, pumps, and crops change when water availability and markets shift together. Along the way, the conversation unpacks key hydrogeology ideas in accessible ways, including layered basalt aquifers, heterogeneity, anisotropy, transmissivity, storage, and why some wells are productive only seasonally while others sustain longer.

Suggested Readings:

1. ACWADAM
2. Befriending aquifers – over a lifetime
3. Celebrating the legacy and reflecting on the future of India’s groundwater
4. Deolankar, S.B. (1980) The Deccan Basalts of Maharashtra, India—Their Potential as Aquifers. Ground Water, 18, 434-437. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6584.1980.tb03416.x
5. Kulkarni, H. (1992). Delineation of shallow Deccan basaltic aquifers from Maharashtra using aerial photointerpretation. Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02999209
6. Kulkarni, Himanshu & S.B.Deolankar,. (1995). Hydrogeological Mapping in the Deccan Basalts – An Appraisal. Journal of the Geological Society of India. 46. 345-352. 10.13140/RG.2.2.32443.49449 
7. Kulkarni, Himanshu & Deolankar, S. & Lalwani, A. & Joseph, B. & Pawar, S.. (2000). Hydrogeological framework of the Deccan basalt groundwater systems, west-central India. Hydrogeology Journal. 8. 368-378. https://doi.org/10.1007/s100400000079
8. Community Management of Groundwater Resources In Rural India: Research Report
9. Tambe, S., Kharel, G., Arrawatia, M. L., Kulkarni, H., Mahamuni, K., et al. (2012). Reviving dying springs: Climate change adaptation experiments from the Sikkim Himalaya. Mountain Research and Development, 32(1), 62–72. https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-11-00079.1
10. Kumar, M., Sen, S., Kulkarni, H., Badiger, S., Varma, G. R., & Krishnaswamy, J. (Year). Ecohydrological and hydrogeological dynamics of groundwater springs in Eastern Himalaya, India. Groundwater for Sustainable Development. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsd.2024.101311
11. Shrestha, R., Desai, J., Mukherji, A., Dhakal, M., Kulkarni, H., & Acharya, S. (Year). Application of eight-step methodology for reviving springs and improving springshed management in the mid-hills of Nepal. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. 10.53055/ICIMOD.652
12. Phadnis, Vinit & Srivastava, Gaurav & Patil, Siddharth & Joshi, Sampada. (2008). Study of Pondhe watershed area, Purandar taluka, Pune district, Maharashtra based on hydrogeological mapping through Field studies and geospatial techniques. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.16672.79369
13. Kulkarni, Himanshu & Aslekar, Uma & Joshi, Dhaval. (2018). Specific Yield of Unconfined Aquifers in Revisiting Efficiency of Groundwater Usage in Agricultural Systems. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-4552-3_10
14. Kulkarni, H., Lalwani, A. & Deolankar, S. Selection of Appropriate Pumping Systems for Bore Wells in The Deccan Basalt of India. HYJO 5, 75–81 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/s100400050258
15. Pakhmode, Vijay & Kulkarni, Himanshu & Deolankar, S.B.. (2003). Hydrological-drainage analysis in watershed-programme planning: A case from the Deccan basalt, India. Hydrogeology Journal. 11. 595-604. DOI:10.1007/s10040-003-0279-z
16. What are we allocating and who decides? Democratising understanding of groundwater and decisions for judicious allocations in India https://doi.org/10.2166/9781789062786_0173
17. Kulkarni, H., & Shankar, P. S. V. (2009). Groundwater: Towards an Aquifer Management Framework . Economic and Political Weekly, 44(6), 13–17.
18. Margreet Zwarteveen, Marcel Kuper, Cristian Olmos-Herrera, Muna Dajani, Jeltsje Kemerink-Seyoum, Cleaver Frances, Linnea Beckett, Flora Lu, Seema Kulkarni, Himanshu Kulkarni, Uma Aslekar, Lowe Börjeson, Andres Verzijl, Carolina Dominguez Guzmán, Maria Teresa Oré, Irene Leonardelli, Lisa Bossenbroek, Hind Ftouhi, Tavengwa Chitata, Tarik Hartani, Amine Saidani, Michelaina Johnson, Aysha Peterson, Sneha Bhat, Sachin Bhopal, Zakaria Kadiri, Rucha Deshmukh, Dhaval Joshi, Hans Komakech, Kerstin Joseph, Ebrania Mlimbila, Chris De Bont. Transformations to groundwater sustainability: from individuals and pumps to communities and aquifers, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Volume 49, 2021, Pages 88-97, ISSN 1877-3435, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2021.03.004 
19. Himanshu Kulkarni, Mihir Shah, P.S. Vijay Shankar, Shaping the contours of groundwater governance in India, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, Volume 4, Part A, 2015, Pages 172-192, ISSN 2214-5818, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2014.11.004 

The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water hosted by Veena Srinivasan.

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