Abstract Groundwater contamination has become an environmental issue all around the world. The specific objective of the present study is to evaluate the risk assessment of groundwater for nitrate contamination and in addition to assess the suitability of groundwater for domestic and irrigation purposes in the semi-arid region. Thirty sample locations were identified based on the more active industrial and high-densified residential regions in the study area. To evaluate the drinking and irrigation fitness of groundwater by analysed water quality parameters such as pH, Electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, Total hardness, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, sulphate, fluoride, carbonate and bicarbonate. According to World Health Organization (WHO) 2011 and Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) 2012 standards, the GIS Spatial analysis of groundwater parameters was carried out to identify each parameter high contaminated regions in the study area. Multivariate statistical analysis, such as principal component analysis, cluster analysis, and Pearson correlation matrix, was used to understand the relationship between water quality parameters. The Results show that 40% of samples are highly affected due to the high concentration of nitrate. The total non-carcinogenic health risks for male, women, and children are 40%, 50%, and 53.33%, respectively. It reveals that, children and women are at high risk than male in the study region. The major sources of contamination are discharges from the household, uncovered septic tanks, leachate from the waste dump, and excess utilization of fertilizers in the agriculture field.Keywords: Groundwater, GIS, Statistical analysis, Nitrate contamination, Risk assessmentIntroduction In the arid and semi-arid regions, groundwater is the most significant water sources for agriculture, domestic, and industrial activities. Natural and artificial source of groundwater contamination can be identified with human health, which are the most across the broad issues in arid and semi-arid regions in the world (Abbasnia et al., 2019 Busico et al., 2020 Balamurugan et al., 2020a, Shankar et al., 2019, Patil et al., 2020). It is essential to monitoring the human health, quality and amount of grains since it affects soils, crops, and the natural condition of ecosystem (Balamurugan et al., 2020b). About 80% of the health issues and diseases around the world are due to the consumption of contaminated water for domestic purposes (Adimalla et al., 2019a, Karunanidhi et al., 2019, Kavurmacı et al., 2020). Geogenic and human activities are the major sources of groundwater contamination in arid and semi-arid region. Among the many contaminants, nitrate contamination is the serious issue to monitor and evaluate its impact on human health. As it is highly soluble in water and easily spread groundwater contaminants all around the world (Adimalla et al., 2019c, Ahada and Suthar 2017, Mohanakavitha et al., 2019a, Mohanakavitha et al., 2019b, Nadikatla et al., 2020, Nhu et al., 2020, Ohwoghere-Asuma et al., 2019). In the southern part of India, rural and local residents are directly drawn from bore wells or open wells for drinking and agriculture uses. Their continuous consumption of groundwater with a high concentration of nitrate has seriously increased health issues. In recent years, numerous of research carried out the impact of nitrate contamination in drinking water and environmental issues. The elevated concentration of nitrate in drinking water can cause liver damage, blue baby syndrome for infants and cancers (Kaur et al., 2020, Khurshid et al., 2019, Taneja et al., 2019 and Thapa et al., 2019).Adimalla (2020) carried out the study on nitrate contamination in drinking water from the semi-arid region of south India and found that agricultural activities and animal waste disposal are the significant factors that deteriorate groundwater’s nature in the study region. Karunanidhi et al., (2019) investigated the potential health risk assessment in hard rock regions due to fluoride and nitration contamination. It also reveals that excess usage of synthetic fertilizers, cow dung used for fertilizer in the agriculture field is the source of groundwater contamination. Tian et al., (2019) studied the risk assessment of nitrate contamination in shallow groundwater. They stated that waste disposal from residential areas and modern agricultural activities are major sources of nitrate contamination in groundwater. Wagh et al., (2020) conducted a study on risk assessment of groundwater due to high nitrate contamination in kadava river basin, India and found that disposal of waste from resident area near river basin and modern agriculture activities are highly deteriorated the groundwater nature. Saurabh Shukla and Abhishek Saxena (2020) reviewed the sources and leaching of nitrate contamination in groundwater. They stated that isotopic studied with the help of statistical tools reveal a better result in the determination and identification of nitrate contamination than the geogenic factors studies. Nadikatla et al., (2019) evaluated the groundwater quality using the water quality index method in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, India. They found that, the entire groundwater quality is affected due to lack of improper sanitation facilities, sewage disposal and seepage runoffs.Statistical analysis was used to identify the major ions that contribute to deteriorate the nature of groundwater in the study region. In this domain, the correlation coefficient, principal component analysis (PCA), and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) are the most efficient methods to evaluate and gives a clear idea about the chemical composition of groundwater. Su et al., (2020) evaluated the impact of natural and anthropogenic activities of the groundwater using multivariate statistical techniques in Baotou city, china and found that, three cluster values reveal rock water interaction, sewage intrusion and evaporation are the factors that affect the nature of groundwater. Singh et al., (2020) conducted a study on multivariate analysis of groundwater in the agricultural dominates taluks in Punjab, India, and found that PCA analysis suggested that the chemical composition of groundwater gets disturbed by the process of rock water interactions and high impacts of anthropogenic activities. Sajil (2020) investigated the hydrogeochemical and multivariate statistical analysis of pollution sources in the groundwater near the Bhavani river basin, Tamilnadu and stated that, higher factor loadings for major ions indicate mixed influenced of natural and anthropogenic activities destroyed the quality of groundwater in the study region.From the above context, the specific objectives of the present study is (1) to evaluate the physio-chemical characterises of groundwater and compared with World Health Organisation (WHO) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) (2) To determine the nitrate contamination in study area (3) To ascertain the vulnerable regions based on WQI index value (4) To identify the sources of contamination using statistical analysis. The present study’s results are useful for change effective approaches for enhancing the rural drinking water system in a nitrate prone zone.