Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
The over-exploited assessment units are mostly concentrated in the north western region of the country including parts of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Image source: IANS
The number of over-exploited units have significantly declined from 1186 in 2017 to 1006 in 2022. The stage of ground water extraction has also dropped from 63 per cent in 2017 to 60 per cent in 2022
According to a recent assessment of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Ministry of Jalshakti, the extraction of ground water in India has been lowest in last 18 years. According to the 2022 assessment report, the total annual groundwater recharge for the entire country is 437.60 billion cubic meters (bcm), while the total annual groundwater extraction for the entire country is 239.16 bcm. The overall stage of groundwater extraction has marginally decreased from 61.6 per cent to 60.08 per cent.
The total annual ground water recharge has increased from 436 bcm in 2017 to 437.6 bcm in 2022, where major increase is noticed in the states of Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Gujarat. This shows that there is an increase in the ground water recharge in India. According to the assessment, the reasons behind the increase in ground water recharge are irrigation water return flow, and recharges from water bodies/tanks & water conservation structures. The main source of replenishable ground water resources is recharge from rainfall, which contributes to nearly 61 per cent of the total annual ground water recharge. India receives about 119 cm. of rain annually on average, with high spatial variation.
Ground water trends
The highest annual groundwater recharge was reported in 2013 at 447 bcm while the lowest was reported at 431 bcm in 2009. The annual ground water extraction was highest in 2013 at 253 bcm. The lowest ground water extraction was reported in 2004 at 231 bcm. As mentioned above, the ground water extraction in India in 2022 has been lowest since 2004. Ground water extraction in India in 2022 is reported at 239.16 bcm. Additionally, the Ministry of Water Resources said that it has seen a general decline in the number of overexploited units and a decline in the stage of groundwater exploitation. The number of over-exploited units have significantly declined from 1186 in 2017 to 1006 in 2022. The stage of ground water extraction has also dropped from 63 per cent in 2017 to 60 per cent in 2022.
Punjab, Haryana and UP cause of concern
The over-exploited assessment units are mostly concentrated in the north western region of the country including parts of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh where even though the replenishable resources are abundant, there have been indiscriminate withdrawals of ground water leading to over exploitation. The chart below shows the annual extractable ground water resource, current annual ground water extraction and net ground water availability for future use in the Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Source: Central Ground Water Board
The above chart shows that there is over-exploitation of ground water in the states of Punjab and Haryana. Punjab ranks at the top in case of over-exploitation of ground water. Data shows that the current annual water extraction in Punjab is 28.02 bcm against the annual extractable ground water resource capacity of only 17.37 bcm. This shows that Punjab is over-extracting the ground water.
Haryana has a similar tale as the annual extractable ground water resource stands at 8.61 bcm and the current annual ground water extraction is 11.54 bcm. This shows that there is over-exploitation of ground water resource in Haryana too. Coming over to Uttar Pradesh, though the current annual ground water extraction is less than the annual extractable ground water resource, the western parts of the state narrate a different story as they tend to use more ground water than the annual capacity of ground water extraction.
Though India has reported a decline in ground water extraction and even though it has declined in the last 18 years, Punjab and Haryana are an exception to it.
According to a study by IIT Kanpur on ground water depletion in Punjab and Haryana, the rice cultivation area increased from 1,92,000 to 14,22,000 hectares between 1966-67 and 2017-18 for Haryana and from 2,27,000 to 30,64,000 hectares between 1960-61 and 2017-18 in Punjab. This is the main reason behind the over-extraction of ground water in these states. Through unchecked pumping and groundwater extraction, some workers have pointed to the Green Revolution as the main reason for the region's substantial decline in groundwater levels. The reason behind over-extraction of ground water in western Uttar Pradesh is attributed to the rapid urbanisation, over-dependence on ground water and erratic rainfall.
