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Re-emergence of rivers, sweet water springs' there has been much geological speculation after the earthquake in the Rann of Kutch. INDIA TODAY'S Special Correspondent Uday Mahurkar weighs the possibilities and concludes it's early days yet.

Is it the Indus or the Saraswati or only a mirage produced by the despair following widespread destruction? The appearance of fresh paleo channels (underground rivers) in the satellite pictures taken over the Rann of Kutch following the January 26 earthquake in the region at first seemed like a geological phenomenon rooted in a miracle: of a tempestuous Nature taking away with one hand but giving with another. However, investigations by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) reveal that the talk of rivers, both real and mythical, re-emerging in the region is premature. So too are hopes that the killer quake may have unearthed sources of that precious commodity in the Rann: sweet water.

Minutes after the big quake struck Gujarat, water began to spring from hundreds of craters and fissures ranging in sizes from 2 inches to 4.5 metres in Kutch and Jamnagar. In some places, people saw water rising out of the earth like a fountain up to a height of 4 ft. The satellite images over east and west of Khavda in the Rann and in the Banni grasslands in the south triggered questions as to whether one of the channels was the mythical Saraswati or the Indus.

While the Saraswati remains the stuff of legend, the re-emergence of the Indus is not as impossible as it sounds. More than 180 years ago, the river had last changed its course from the Rann to Sindh (now Pakistan) over a ten-year period. The reason? The earthquake of June 16, 1819. According to authentic accounts recorded in the history of Kutch, the level of the Indus went up from 3 to 30 ft, inundating a village called Sindhri and through aftershocks and over a period of time, producing an earthen dyke now called Allahband to the right of the river. Within 10 years, the river had changed course to its current location.

Scientists now say that the re-surfacing of the Indus is far-fetched: A.K. Sinha, regional director of the CGWB, Ahmedabad, which is investigating the geological fallout of the earthquake with a 30-member team, says: At the moment there is no evidence of saline parts having yielded sweet water in Kutch. We are still investigating and will reach definite conclusion shortly. But we do not preclude the possibility of sweet water emerging in saline parts. Mother earth can do wonders.

After the quake, a team from CGWB reached Kutch to conduct investigations and collected dozens of samples, some of them right from the Rann of Kutch which was pitted with huge craters, some as wide as 4.5 metres. Evidence of sweet water surfaced from only two samples, one in Paya village in Kutch's Nakhatrana taluk and another in the farmland area at village Andhav near Khavda. Significantly, both Paya and Andhav already have shallow sweet-water aquifers (water bearing rocks or rock formations) below their surface. According to CGWB, in Paya, sweet water sprang from the dry river bed of the Golati river and then spread in a radius of 10 metres, while in Andhav the water was sweet initially but turned slightly brackish after a while. Had sweet water been found in known saline water areas, it would have enabled scientists to draw more concrete conclusions about the changes that had taken place under the earth following the quake.

Further hopes of finding fresh sweet water sources were dampened when samples taken from craters in the Rann turned out to be not just saline water but brine (with higher salt content) when tested. What's more, brine in some samples was high enough to burn one's fingers. Sinha says the situation underground could mirror those in stretches of rivers which at high tide turn saline when their water mixes with sea water. We are looking at reports of the emergence of sweet water paleo channels from all angles.

Reports of the water levels of wells rising in the days following the quake most likely have mundane explanation than geological upheaval: the quake in Kutch brought all normal activity, including the drawing of water through motorised pumps to a halt, leading to a rise in water levels. The levels have now stabilised and returned to their old levels and scientists say that it will be a while before any conclusions can be reached on the impact of quake on ground water levels in Kutch.

When water sprang out of dry regions in the villages of Kutch following the quake, there was an euphoria which has now died down with the discovery that the water at most places is saline. In Andhav, where sweet water sprang up from small craters in three different spots, the water has now dried up. However, there is still moisture both inside the craters and on the surface. Alam Rahim Nolai, a local farmer, says, Our cattle flocked to these spots and drank the water. But by the next day the water had dried up. It had gushed to a height of almost 4 ft from the small craters for almost five minutes before subsiding.

Subsequently it just oozed for some time. Nolai's cousin who was present at the spot became so terrified on seeing the unusual phenomenon that he fled the place. But when he returned later, he tasted the water, which to his delight was sweet.

There may not be new sources of sweet water found in Kutch yet but the craters around the quake-affected region have turned into a source of wonder. Near Khengarpur village, 10 km away from the epicentre of the quake, craters, some as large as 25 ft wide, have turned into local attractions. Hundreds of people travel to the spot every day to witness what they consider to be a mystery of nature. As far as the geologists are concerned, the secrets of the new water springs of Kutch will be an untold mystery for a little while longer.

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