Effects of Exotic Eucalyptus Plantation on the Ground and Surface Water of District

Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT: Vegetation plays a significant role in determining ground and surface water of an area. The present study was aimed to investigate the impacts of exotic Eucalyptus plantation on the ground and surface water in district Malakand (34.50° N, 71.75 ° E) Pakistan. Two villages (Kot and Totai) were selected randomly for data collection with a sample size of 25 % of the population representing each village. The methods used were questionnaire survey, interviews, water table and discharge rate measurement. The results of the study indicated that 64 % springs have been dried out so far in village Kot and 75 % in village Totai due to high uptake of water. Eucalyptus plantation has adverse effects on ground and surface water. It was found that Eucalyptus has deepened the water table by 0.762m (0.833 yards) per year in both villages as a result the average depth of water table has reached 20.116 m (22 yards) in village Totai and 15.544 m (17 yards) in village Kot. As a result, some springs have become seasonal depending on rainfall. Results of the current study suggest that ground water and surface water resources should be monitored regularly to determine the protection and regeneration of natural forests and better utilization and improvement of marginal and degraded lands. Moreover introduction of new plant species to an area should be made after careful observation of climatic conditions of the area and keeping in mind the possible effects of these specie