Abstract

Sheopur is one of the tribal districts among the 21 tribal districts of Madhya Pradesh. It is small tribal towns and Sehariya tribe population lives here. Therefore, present investigation was carried out for 24 Higher Secondary Schools of the Sheopur district to delineated fluoride concentration in groundwater drinking water used by school children’s. The calculation of the water quality index has shown that 62 % of groundwater is of low quality and is not suitable according to BIS and WHO requirements for domestic purposes. As groundwater is the only source of drinking water in the region. A total 22 tube bell, hand pump and dug bell samples were collected from 17 villages of Sheopur. Dug and tube wells are used by the municipal water delivery system. Fluoride toxicant was quantifying by ion selective electrode method. The maximum fluoride range recorded in Karhal is 1.63 ppm and minimum fluoride range recorded in Vijyapur (Raghunathpur village) was 0.12 ppm and other physicochemical parameter was screened like pH, TDS, EC, turbidity, Na, Ca, and K. The ranges of these parameters are pH 6 to 7.5, TDS 150 to 1960 in ppm, EC 0.1 to 2.2 μS/cm, turbidity 0.2 to 11.10 NTU, Na 9.25 to 437 ppm, Ca 29.96 to 60.75 ppm and K 0.2 to 88.07 ppm. This study was carried out first time which revealed the fluoride range as a systematical presented in maximum high secondary schools of Sheopur district which confined to a big area in the Sheopur district region. This was in accordance with WHO guidelines explaining that at an optimal fluoride level (1 ppm), about 20% of the population demonstrates fluorosis.