Ritesh Arya

Ritesh Arya is an Indian geologist known for finding water at multiple locations in the high-altitude cold and mountainous desert of Ladakh, including the Siachen Glacier, which has made him a Guinness World Records holder. In 2014 he was Director Water and Geothermal Section at the International Sustainable Energy Organization (ISEO).

Life

Ritesh Arya was born in Shimla on 20 Aug 1968. He had his primary education from St Edward Shimla and high school from St Mary's Convent School Kasauli. He did his pre-medical from DAV Chandigarh but soon realized that dissections on animals were not his cup of tea. He joined BSc (Hons School) in the Center of Advanced Study in Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh and did his Master's and Ph.D. from there. He has an interest in fossils, groundwater, tectonics, climate, and geothermal.

Fossils

During his graduation days, he was inspired by Medlicott who had collected fossils from the Kasauli club in 1864. Since Arya belonged to Kasauli, he started collecting fossils during his graduation days, which culminated in his Ph.D. degree, but his love for fossils continued. His collection included fossils of leaves, flowers, stems, roots, vertebrates, molluscs, and insect wings most of which were the first report from the Kasauli Himalayas

He presented his findings in Seminar marking the 25th celebration of Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in 1993 and later in 1994 he also presented the same in the International Geological Correlation Program 355 on Neogene evolution of Pacific Ocean gateways Inter-University Seminar House, Kansai JAPAN organized by Prof Nishimura in Japan 1994.
Of great interest was the 1st mammal cusp fossil identified as the oldest Rhinocerous fossil from Kasauli Formation and numerous fossil leaves identified by scientists of Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany (now paleosciences) belonging to genus Garcinia, Gluta, Combretum and Syzygium. Today these fossils are not found in the Himalayas but are confined to Andaman Nicobar island, Indonesia and Malaysia. Implies that Kasauli sediments belonging to the lower Miocene age were near the equator at the time of deposition and the Himalayas were not born till 20 million years ago. His interest in fossils continued and he discovered fossils of palms from the high-altitude 13000feet, cold mountain desserts of Stok in UT Ladakh.

Groundwater

In 1993 he joined the Groundwater Organisation, Government of Himachal Pradesh as a hydrogeologist to explore groundwater resources in the Himalayas which were earlier considered to devoid of groundwater resources. In 1996 he coined the word Hydrostratigraphy and divided the Himalayas into 7 hydrostratigraphic zones based on borewell samples. He prepared a Conceptual model to explain occurrences and movement of groundwater resources in the entire Himalayas and presented the same in 1996 International Geological Congress Beijing China
In 1995, following a request from the Dalai Lama to help in providing potable water to natives of Sonamling Tibetan Settlement in Choglamsar. These were those Tibetans who had fled Tibet following Chinese aggression in 1959 along with the Dalai Lama and settled in these high-altitude cold mountain deserts of the world. Arya successfully explored the region which was at that time considered to be devoid of groundwater. In 1997 Water Aid funded a project to find drinking water for around 5000 Tibetans living in and around Leh. This included Choglamsar, Spituk, Nyoma

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