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India is rich in underground water. Its spatial distribution, however, is most uneven. For example, the average annual rainfall in India is about 110 cm. While Mawsynram and Cherrapunji receive more than 1000 cm rainfall annually, the average annual rainfall in Ganganagar is only about 20 cm.
The underground water resource is a function of geological structure, topography, slope, precipitation, runoff, soils and hydrological conditions of a region. In the opinion of Prof. R.L. Singh (1971), India may be divided into eight ground water provinces (Fig. 3.12). A brief account of these provinces has been given in the following section: