Faculty at School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni

Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni

Professor of Practice (Rural Management)


Contact Information

  • Groundwater, water management, rural development and management and water governance.

  • MSc (1983)
  • PhD (1987) from Pune University (now Savitribai Phule Pune University)

  • 40 years in the field of groundwater science, groundwater management and groundwater governance.

  • Junior and Senior Research Fellowships of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) through the first CSIR National Entrance Test in 1983.
  • Research Associate (post-doc) and Scientist of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – 1983 to 1996.
  • Fulbright Scholar under Indo-American Environment Leadership Program for a study in the USA (July - August 2007), dealing with groundwater management initiatives, especially in the Western United States – hosted at ISET, Boulder, Colorado.
  • UNESCO Scholarship for PGTC_2001 (Post graduate training course in groundwater tracing techniques): Joanneum Research & Technical University, Graz, Austria – 2001.

National

  • Member, Committee on ‘spring-shed’ mapping of Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) including mountainous regions of the country and spring-shed based watershed management, Government of India, ongoing.
  • Member, Advisory Committee on National Aquifer Mapping (NAQUIM) – 2.0, Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, ongoing.
  • Member, Drafting Committee, India’s National Water Policy, Ministry of Jal Shakti (Water Resources), Government of India, 2019-20.
  • Member, Advisory Committee, Water Strategy Development, Government of MP, 2019-20.
  • Jury Member, FICCI Water Awards, 2019 - 2022.
  • Lead Author (along with Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, Adviser, DST, Govt. if India), Report of Working Group 1: Inventory and Revival of Springs in the Himalayas for Water Security, as part of the NITI Aayog (Government of India) initiative on Sustainable Development in Indian Himalayan Region, 2018.
  • Reviewed the report on ‘Groundwater management and regulation’ produced as an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in 2019-20. As part of the process, special presentations were in Jaipur and Chennai on “Groundwater Management in India” during two workshops for teams conducting Scientific Audit of the national programme on Groundwater Management and Governance, on invitation from the office of Comptroller and Auditor General of India, August 2018.
  • Member, Committee on drafting the Water Policy for the state of Karnataka, India through the Karnataka Jnana Aayoga. Chaired the sub-committee on ‘Groundwater and its interaction with surface water’, 2017-18.
  • Member, State Advisory Board on Water Resources Planning, Government of Maharashtra & 2030 WRG, 2018 - current.
  • Member, High Level Committee on reforming and restructuring CWC and CGWB, the two apex institutions dealing with surface water and groundwater under Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, 2015-16. Chaired and co-chaired the sub-groups on Groundwater and Capacity Building respectively. Also, played a major role in drafting out the main report.
  • Member, committee to review drafts of the following water legislations under Ministry of Water Resources: Model bill on Conservation, Protection and Regulation of Ground Water, 2011, Draft National Water Framework Law, and Draft River Basin Management – 2015-17. Also, Member, Committee on reviewing Draft Water Framework Law and Draft Model Bill on Groundwater Protection and Management, 2011, MoWR, GoI.
  • Chairman working group on Sustainable Groundwater Management, on invitation from Planning Commission, Government of India, in preparation of 12th Five Year Plan. Wrote up major sections of the Working Group Report on groundwater for the 12th Plan – 2010-11. (Chairman, CGWB – GoI, was the Co-chair of the Working Group).
  • Member, Steering Committee, Water Resources, Planning Commission, Government of India –2010-11; Member, High Level Committee to Study Water Logging and Soil Salinisation constituted by Planning Commission, Government of India, for Government of Punjab–2011-2013.

International

  • Keynote speaker and facilitator during the UNSECO Paris International Groundwater Conference on ‘Groundwater: Key to Sustainable Development Goals’, 18-20 May 2022.
  • Transformations to Groundwater Sustainability: EU Project with partners from across 6 continents. Project anchored by UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands – just concluded.
  • Delivered two invited lectures on ‘Groundwater Management and Governance in India’, in Paris (French Agency for Biodiversity) and Montpellier (IM2E – French Institute for Water and Environment) in November 2018 on invitation from experts in France.
  • SDC-UNDP project on Strengthening State Strategies for Climate Action in India – ACWADAM’s role was to develop capacity and conduct dialogue on participatory groundwater management, spring-water revival and provide oversight on the development of Water Policies in certain states – Helvetas was the co-ordinating agency – 2017 to 2019.
  • Reviving springs and providing access to solar powered irrigation pumps (SPIP) through community-based water use planning: Multiple approaches to solving agricultural water problems in mid hills and Terai in Nepal and India – collaboration with ICIMOD, Nepal. Programme support was through CGIAR’s WLE Programme.
  • Collaborative Applied Research and Partnership in Kailash Sacred Landscape (India and Nepal) Understanding Springs using the ‘Springshed’ Hydrogeology Approach – collaboration with ICIMOD, Nepal – lead researcher on the programme for ACWADAM.
  • Improving livelihoods with innovative cropping systems on the East India Plateau 2012 – 2016. Supported by ACIAR and led by University of Western Sydney in partnership with Pradan. ACWADAM led the theme on groundwater management.
  • AGRAR 2006. Managed Aquifer Recharge: an assessment of its role and effectiveness in watershed management. ACWADAM was one of the partners (HK was the co-ordinator and lead researcher from ACWADAM) – 2003-2006. Lead agency was British Geological Survey under DFID support.
  • COMMAN 2005. Community Management of Groundwater Resources in Rural India – International collaboration between various International Agencies and Indian Partners – ACWADAM was one of the partners (HK was the co-ordinator and lead researcher from ACWADAM) – 2002-2005. Lead was British Geological Survey under DFID support.
  • Research collaboration between Department of Geology, SPPU, Pune and British Geological Survey – ‘Sustainable Groundwater Development of hard-rock aquifers: the possible conflict between irrigation and drinking water supplies from the Deccan Basalts of India’ – lead researcher on India side – under the ODA programme – 1991-1995. The project was co-ordinated through British Council.
  • Presented research findings in more than 10 national and international symposia on groundwater, including conferences and symposia in USA, UK, The Netherlands, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Bhutan, Nepal, and Vietnam.

  • International Association of Hydrogeologists, International Association of Hydrological Sciences.

  1. Kulkarni, H., Shah, M. and Vijay Shankar, P. S. 2015. Shaping the contours of groundwater governance in India. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, v.4(A), September 2015, 172–192, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2014.11.004.
  2. Shah, M. and Kulkarni, H. 2015. Urban water systems in India: typologies and hypotheses. Special Article, Economic and Political Weekly, L (30), July 25, 2015, 57-69.
  3. Moench, M., Kulkarni, H. and Burke, J. 2012. Trends in local groundwater management institutions. Thematic paper 7, Groundwater Governance: A Global Framework for Country Action, GEF ID 3726. groundwatergovernance.org
  4. Kulkarni, H. and Vijay Shankar, P. S. 2014. Groundwater resources in India: an arena for diverse competition. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, v. 19(9), 990-1011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2014.964192.
  5. Kulkarni, H. and Vijay Shankar, P. S. (2009) Groundwater: towards and aquifer management framework. Commentary, Economic and Political Weekly, February 7, 2009.
  6. Kulkarni, H. (2005) Groundwater overdraft: a physical perspective. In: COMMAN 2005. Community Management of Groundwater Resources in Rural India – Research Report, R. Calow and D. Macdonald (eds), British Geological Survey Commissioned Report CR/05/36N., pp. 1-13.
  7. Kulkarni, H., Vijay Shankar, P.S., Deolankar, S.B. and Shah Mihir (2004) Groundwater demand management at local scale in rural areas of India: a strategy to ensure water well sustainability based on aquifer diffusivity and community participation. Hydrogeology Journal (Springer), v. 12(2), pp. 184-196.
  8. Kulkarni, H., Deolankar S. B., Lalwani A., Joseph B. and Pawar S. (2000) Hydrogeological framework of Deccan basalt ground water systems, India. Hydrogeology Journal (Springer - Verlag), v. 8(4), pp. 368-378.
  9. Kulkarni, H. and Deolankar S.B. (1993) Ground water abstraction from shallow unconfined Deccan basaltic aquifers of Maharashtra, India. In Selected Papers in Environmental Hydrogeology: Y Sakura (ed.); Int. Assoc. Hydrogeol. - Verlag Heinz Heise Publ., v. 4 (Section 3), pp. 107-120.
  10. Tambe, S., Rawat, G. S., Bhutia, N. T., Sherpa, P. N., Dhakal, S., Pradhan, S., Kulkarni, H. and Arrawatia, M. L. 2020. Building sustainability in the Eastern Himalaya: linking evidence to action. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 22: 5887-5903.
  11. Kulkarni, H. and Gokhale, R. 2020. Managing Deccan Basalt aquifers: understanding aquifer heterogeneity, iniquitous access, and groundwater competition. e-Journal of Geohydrology, INC-IAH, v.1 (2): 9-23.
  12. Cleaver, F., Beckett, L., Lu, F., Kulkarni, S., Kulkarni, H., Aslekar, U., Borjeson, L., Verzijl, A., Dominguez Guzman, C., Ore, MT., Leonardelli, I., Bossenbroek, L., Ftouhi, H., Chitata, T., Hartani, T., Saidani, A., Johnson, M., Peterson, A., Bhat, S., Bhopal, S., Zakaria, K., Deshmukh, R., Joshi, D., Komakech, H., Joseph, K., Mlimbila, E. and De Bont, C. 2021. Transformations to groundwater sustainability: from individuals and pumps to communities and aquifers. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 49: 88-97, ISSN 1877-3435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2021.03.004.

(I) Chapter for Section on Sustainable Approaches, Tools and Techniques for the book Water, Climate Change and Sustainability

Kulkarni, H., Desai, J. and Siddique I. M. (2021) Rejuvenation of springs in the Himalayan Region. In: Pandey, V.P., Shrestha, S. and Wiberg, D. (Eds.) Water, Climate Change and Sustainability, 6 (Section II – Sustainable Approaches, Tools and Techniques): 97-108, John Wiley & Sons Inc.

(II) Chapter for Handbook on Climate Change

Kulkarni, H. and Thakkar, H. (2012) Framework for India’s strategic water resource management under a changing climate, pp. 328-340; (in ed: Dubash, N.). Handbook on Climate Change in India, Oxford University Press.

(III) Chapter for India Rural Development Report, 2013-14

Kulkarni, H., Vijay Shankar, P.S. and Patil, S. (2015) The relevance of groundwater typology in India’s rural development. Chapter 2, IDFC Rural Development Network 2014. India Rural Development Report 2013/14. Orient BlackSwan, Delhi.

(IV) Chapter for Clean and Sustainable Groundwater in India

Kulkarni, H., Aslekar, U. and Joshi, D. (2018) Specific Yield of Unconfined Aquifers in Revisiting Efficiency of Groundwater. In: D. Saha et al. (eds.), Clean and Sustainable Groundwater in India. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018. Springer Hydrogeology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4552-3_10.

(V) Paper for Chapter in Book on Groundwater of South Asia

Kulkarni, H., Aslekar, U. and Patil, S. (2018) Groundwater Management in India: Status, Challenges, and a Framework for Responses. In: Mukherjee, A. (ed.), Groundwater of South Asia. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018. Springer Water, DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3889-1.

(XVI) Chapter in Water Resources of Western and Central Regions of India

Kulkarni, H., Bhave, N., Upasani, D. and Gupta, R. 2022. Aquifers: forging the convergence between groundwater and communities in the heterogeneous groundwater systems of Western and Central India. In: Das, S. and Duraiswami, R. (Eds.) Water Resources of Western and Central Regions of India: Status, Issues and Strategies. Geological Society of India Special Publication 12: 209-219. Geol. Soc. India and Savitribai Phule Pune University Publ.

(XVII) Chapter in Tribal Development Report (Livelihoods)

Patil, S., Bhave, N., Vijayshankar, P. S. and Kulkarni, H. 2022. Managing groundwater across the diverse Central Indian Drylands: the need for a nuanced approach. In: Shah, M. and Vijayshankar, P. S. (Eds.), Tribal Development Report (Livelihoods): 66-108. Routledge, London & New York.

(XVIII) Chapter in Water Resources Allocation & Agriculture: Transitioning from Open to Regulated Access

Aslekar U., Joshi, D. and Kulkarni, H. 2022. What are we allocating and who decides? Democratising understanding of groundwater and decisions for judicious allocations in India. In: Rouillard, J., Babbitt, C., Challies, E. and Rinaudo, J-D. (Eds.), Water Resources Allocation and Agriculture – Transitioning from Open to Regulated Access: 173-187. IWA Publishing, UK. https://doi.org/10.2166/9781789062786_0173

  • Many invited talks, lectures and presentations – from local to international forums – mainly on the subject of groundwater

  • Founded and headed ACWADAM, a leading NGO working on groundwater in India and overseas for 24 years.
  • Apart from this work, worked as advisor / member of governing bodies of five leading NGOs.
  • Worked on various Government of India and some State Government committees (please refer to the list under ‘national recognition’ listed earlier.
  • Not too much work on international bodies, but worked on various international collaborations (please refer to list under ‘international recognition’ listed earlier).

  • Oral Presentations: Many presentations with keynote talks at national and international gatherings including a keynote for a session at UNESCO, Paris; Water Talk at the Ministry of Jal Shakti and Ganga Rejuvenation; and many more.
  • Poster Presentations: Several, mostly during stint at Pune University.
  • Scholarly Services: Mostly through invitations to contribute to books, articles and as part of curriculum development (as member Board of Studies or otherwise) at leading academic institutions; supervised and refereed post-graduate and doctoral theses.
  • Peer Review Service: For several publications including leading peer-reviewed journals such as Hydrogeology Journal and Journal, Journal of Hydrology, Journal of the Geological Society of India etc.
  • Workshop Services: Conducted and participated in a variety of workshops throughout a 40-year career as discussant, panellist, lead anchor etc.