Introduction
India is the world's largest consumer of groundwater, accounting for approximately 25% of global withdrawals. According to the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), agriculture accounts for 87% of this extraction, sustaining over 60% of irrigated agriculture and 85% of rural drinking water. However, severe overexploitation—with extraction exceeding 100% in states like Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan—imperils agricultural viability and national drinking water security.
Factors Responsible for the Crisis
- Incentive Distortions: Highly subsidised or free electricity, combined with assured Minimum Support Price (MSP) procurement, incentivises the cultivation of water-intensive crops such as paddy and sugarcane in semi-arid agro-ecological zones.
- Flawed Tenurial Architecture: Under the Indian Easements Act, 1882, groundwater rights remain tied to private land ownership. This legal framework facilitates de facto privatisation, prevents effective community-level regulation, and drives competitive borewell drilling.
- Low Water-Use Efficiency: Conventional flood irrigation remains the dominant irrigation practice, while unscientific tubewell spacing accelerates the overlap of cones of depression across major agricultural belts.
- Urban Concretisation and Wetland Degradation: Rapid and unregulated urban expansion destroys floodplains, lakes, and natural recharge zones, severely curbing subsurface aquifer replenishment.
Evaluation of Government Initiatives
- Atal Bhujal Yojana: Successfully introduces participatory water budgeting and behavioral change across water-stressed districts in seven states; however, it faces critical deficits in technical capacity and scientific hydrogeological training at the Gram Panchayat level.
- Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY - Per Drop More Crop): Expanded the adoption of micro-irrigation systems (drip and sprinkler); nevertheless, capital subsidy disbursal delays and high initial costs disproportionately exclude small and marginal farmers.
- Mission Amrit Sarovar and Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Accelerated the creation of community water harvesting and recharge structures nationwide, but these assets often lack institutional arrangements for periodic desiltation and catchment conservation.
- National Aquifer Mapping and Management Programme (NAQUIM): Successfully mapped aquifers across millions of square kilometres; however, these scientific datasets remain poorly integrated into local cropping patterns and administrative land-use permissions.
Way Forward
- Institutional and Legal Reforms: Implement the recommendations of the Mihir Shah Committee to delink water extraction rights from land ownership and establish unified, participatory river-basin management authorities.
- Power and Tariff Decoupling: Scale solarisation through the PM-KUSUM scheme with attractive net-metering feed-in tariffs, incentivising farmers to sell surplus power to the grid rather than over-pumping groundwater.
- Demand-Side Agricultural Management: Reorient procurement incentives and price support toward climate-resilient, less water-intensive crops such as millets, pulses, and oilseeds, alongside mandatory deployment of treated wastewater for industrial and urban non-potable uses.
Conclusion
Addressing India's groundwater crisis requires shifting from supply-side augmentation to comprehensive, demand-side aquifer management. Integrating hydrogeological science with grassroots community governance and restructured agricultural incentives is essential to ensure long-term food sovereignty and drinking water security.