Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan lead in groundwater overexploitation

Groundwater extraction has reached alarming levels in some of the States where agriculture plays a major role in their economy. In some cases, the groundwater extraction rate in 2024 was over three times the annual replenished groundwater recharge. According to the ‘National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India 2024’ report, which was released by the Central Ground Water Board recently, the total annual groundwater recharge in the country has been assessed at 446.90 BCM (billion cubic metres). After accounting for natural discharge, the annual extractable groundwater resource has been assessed as 406.19 BCM.

The annual groundwater extraction was 245.64 BCM in 2024. The average stage of groundwater extraction for the country worked out to be about 60.47 per cent in 2024.The agriculture sector is the largest consumer of groundwater resources, accounting for 87 per cent of the total annual groundwater extraction, which amounts to 213.29 BCM. Domestic use accounts for 11 per cent (28.07 BCM), and industrial use represents 2 per cent (4.28 BCM) of the total annual groundwater extraction of the country.

Groundwater extraction was more than 100 per cent in States and UTs such as Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Delhi in 2024. It was between 70 per cent and 90 per cent in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry and Chandigarh. It was below 70 per cent in other States and UTs.

Of the total 6,746 assessment units in blocks, mandals and talukas in the country, 751 units in various States and union territories (UTs), that is 11.13 per cent, have been categorised as ‘overexploited’. This indicated that groundwater extraction exceeded the annual replenished groundwater recharge in those areas. A major quantity of groundwater was used for irrigation, leading to overexploitation of the resource in these cases.Of the 715 districts mentioned in the compilation, the stage of groundwater extraction was more than 100 per cent in 102 districts. As many as 64 of these districts are in three States of Punjab (19 of 23 districts), Haryana (16 of 22 districts) and Rajasthan (29 of 33 districts).

Punjab is one of the smallest States of India, having three perennial rivers, Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, and one non- perennial river, Ghaggar...The stage of extraction was more than 100 per cent in six districts in Madhya Pradesh (Indore, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Ratlam, Shajapur and Ujjain); five each districts in Uttar Pradesh (Agra, Firozabad, GB Nagar, Ghaziabad and Shamli) and Karnataka (Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru Urban, Chikkaballapura, Chitradurga and Kolara), and UT of Delhi (New Delhi, North, North East, Shahdara, South); four in Gujarat (Banaskantha, Gandhinagar, Mehsana and Patan); and Dadra Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu with UT of the same name; and Hyderabad in Telangana.

The ‘National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India 2024’ attributed over-exploitation of groundwater resources to various region-specific reasons.

It said assessment units located in the north-western part of the country (particularly in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh) have plenty of replenishable groundwater resources. Because of the over-extraction beyond the annual groundwater recharge, many of these units have become over-exploited. It said over-exploited units are also common in the western part of the country, particularly in Rajasthan and Gujarat, where the prevailing arid climate results in low recharge of groundwater and hence stress on these sources.

In peninsular India, over-exploited units are widespread in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This could be attributed mainly to the low storage and transmission capacities of aquifers of the hard rock terrains, which results in reduced availability of the resource, it said.