The groundwater potential of the gangetic valley is on a serious decline. How may it affect the food security of India?
Approach · directive: “how”
What it asks · Explain why groundwater in the Ganga plains is declining and trace its effects on food security — availability, access, utilisation and stability.
It asks 2 things — answer each
- Explain the serious decline in the groundwater potential of the Gangetic valley: causes and evidence
- Analyse how it may affect India's food security (availability, access, utilisation, stability) and how the risk can be contained
Open with · The CGWB's Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment 2025 finds 730 of India's 6,762 assessment units over-exploited, and Punjab extracts 156.36% of its annual extractable groundwater; the plain that fed the Green Revolution is drawing down the aquifer that sustains it.
Cover
- Causes: paddy that came to Punjab–Haryana only in the 1970s, free or flat-rate farm power, assured MSP procurement of rice–wheat, and shrinking recharge.
- Evidence and hotspots: 111 of Punjab's 153 assessment units over-exploited (CGWB 2025); arsenic in groundwater of parts of Bihar and West Bengal (NCERT).
- Availability: deeper water tables raise pumping costs and shrink irrigated area, hitting the wheat and rice FCI buys for buffer stocks.
- Access: small farmers cannot afford deeper borewells; debt and exit from farming erode household food security.
- Utilisation: arsenic and fluoride in drinking water undermine nutrition; stability: NFSA 2013 covers about two-thirds of Indians (three-fourths rural, half urban) from this belt's grain.
- Way forward: Atal Bhujal Yojana's panchayat water budgets (Haryana, UP among seven States); Haryana's Mera Pani Meri Virasat (Rs 7,000 per acre to replace paddy).
- Demand and supply measures: micro-irrigation under PMKSY, direct-seeded rice, metered power, MSP support for millets and pulses, aquifer mapping and recharge, arsenic-safe piped water.
Close with · Managing the Gangetic aquifer as a recharged commons, through panchayat water budgets and crops that follow water, is how India secures both SDG 6 (water for all) and SDG 2 (zero hunger).
Add value (verified)
- Dynamic Ground Water Resources Assessment 2024: 751 of 6,746 assessment units (11.1%) are over-exploited.Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment Report 2024 — PIB, Ministry of Jal Shakti ↗“206 (3.05 %) assessment units, have been categorized as ‘Critical’ and 751 (11.1%) assessment units have been categorized as ‘Over-exploited’”
- The same assessment puts India's average stage of groundwater extraction at about 60%.Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment Report 2024 — PIB, Ministry of Jal Shakti ↗“The annual groundwater extraction for all uses is 245.64 BCM. The average stage of groundwater extraction for the country stands at 60.47 %.”
- CGWB's Punjab report (December 2024): the state's stage of groundwater extraction was 163.76% in GWRA-2023 and 156.87% in GWRA-2024 — far above the 100% mark that defines over-exploitation.Dynamic Ground Water Resources & Ground Water Quality of Punjab, 2024 — Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti ↗“Stage of Ground Water Extrac- tion (in %) 164.42 165.99 163.76 165.77 156.87”
- Atal Bhujal Yojana, launched on 25 December 2019: community-led groundwater management in seven States including Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, covering about 8,350 gram panchayats in 78 districts.Atal Bhujal Yojana — PIB backgrounder, Ministry of Jal Shakti (March 2022) ↗“The scheme aims to improve ground water management through community participation in identified priority areas in seven States, viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Implementation of the scheme is expected to benefit nearly 8350 Gram Panchayats in 78 districts in these states.”
- Haryana's Mera Pani Meri Virasat scheme (Kharif 2020) pays Rs 7,000 per acre to farmers who replace paddy with less water-intensive crops.Crop Diversification Programme – 'Mera Pani Meri Virasat' — Haryana Water Resources Authority ↗“The 'Mera Pani Meri Virasat' scheme has been launched by the State Government of Haryana during Kharif 2020 for the purpose of water conservation. Through this scheme, the state government is encouraging crops that require less water in place of paddy that consumes more water. Under this scheme, Rs. 7000/- per acre is provided to the farmers who have replaced their paddy crop by alternate crops.”
- The National Food Security Act, 2013 gives a legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrains under the TPDS to three-fourths of rural and half of urban residents, about two-thirds of the population.National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 — official NFSA portal, Department of Food and Public Distribution ↗“The Act legally entitles upto 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidized foodgrains under Targeted Public Distribution System.”
- CGWB's 2025 assessment: 730 of 6,762 assessment units (10.80%) are over-exploited.National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India, 2025 — Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti ↗“Out of the total 6762 assessment units (Blocks/ Mandals/ Talukas) in the country, 730 units in various States/ UTs (10.80 %) have been categorized as ‘Over-exploited’”
- The 2025 assessment puts India's average stage of groundwater extraction at 60.63%.National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India, 2025 — Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti ↗“The average stage of groundwater extraction for the country is 60.63 %.”
- The 2025 assessment places most stressed units in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India, 2025 — Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti ↗“the majority of which are located in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka.”
- CGWB Punjab 2025: the stage of groundwater extraction is 156.36%, the highest of any State.Dynamic Ground Water Resources, Level & Quality of Punjab, 2025 — Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti ↗“The Annual Ground Water Extraction is 26.27 bcm and Stage of Ground Water Extraction is 156.36 %.”
- CGWB Punjab 2025: 111 of 153 assessment units (72.55%) are over-exploited.Dynamic Ground Water Resources, Level & Quality of Punjab, 2025 — Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Jal Shakti ↗“Out of total 153 assessment units including 3 urban areas taken for study, 111 assessment units (72.55%)”
- Haryana's Mera Pani Meri Virasat diversified 1,74,164 acres from paddy over Kharif 2020-22, saving 618 MCM of water.Crop Diversification Programme – Mera Pani Meri Virasat — Haryana Water Resources Authority ↗“Year Area Diversified (in Acre) No. of Farmers Benefited Incentive Provided (Rs. in Crore) Water saving (in MCM) 1 MCM=100 Crore Litre Kharif 2020 63,743 41,947 45.00 226 Kharif 2021 51,896 32,186 31.00 184 Kharif 2022 58,525 34,239 41.22 208 Total 1,74,164 1,08,372 117.22 618”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2024, GS Paper I — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 16 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 361words · Minimalist IAS
The CGWB's Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment 2025 finds 730 of India's 6,762 assessment units over-exploited, and Punjab extracts 156.36% of its annual extractable groundwater. The plain that fed the Green Revolution is drawing down the aquifer that sustains it.
Why groundwater in the Gangetic valley is declining
- Paddy on the plain: rice spread across irrigated Punjab and Haryana with the Green Revolution and now rules the kharif season.
- Perverse incentives: free or flat-rate farm power and assured MSP procurement reward the rice–wheat cycle over millets and pulses.
- Shrinking recharge: paved surfaces, silted ponds and erratic monsoons cut the natural recharge of the alluvial aquifer.
- Hotspots: 111 of Punjab's 153 assessment units are over-exploited (CGWB 2025), while groundwater in parts of Bihar and West Bengal carries arsenic.
✏️ Map to sketch in the exam · Groundwater stress across the Ganga plain
- Shade: Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh = states with over-exploited groundwater units (CGWB 2025)
- Shade: Bihar, West Bengal = arsenic in groundwater (NCERT)
Draw on India's official outline (Survey of India boundary).
How the decline threatens food security
- Availability: deeper water tables raise pumping costs and shrink irrigated area, hitting the wheat and rice that FCI buys for buffer stocks.
- Access: small and marginal farmers cannot afford deeper borewells; debt and distress push them out of farming and into food insecurity.
- Utilisation: arsenic and fluoride in drinking water undermine nutrition, so grain eaten does not become health.
- Stability: the central pool leans on this belt, so a shock here endangers the NFSA 2013 entitlement that covers about two-thirds of Indians (three-fourths rural, half urban).
Way forward
- Community water budgeting: scale Atal Bhujal Yojana (2019), which already covers gram panchayats in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, across the basin.
- Paid diversification: Haryana's Mera Pani Meri Virasat (2020) pays Rs 7,000 per acre to replace paddy and moved 1.74 lakh acres in three seasons.
- Demand management: micro-irrigation under PMKSY, direct-seeded rice, metered farm power and MSP support for millets and pulses.
- Supply and quality: aquifer mapping, recharge structures, and arsenic-safe piped water under the Jal Jeevan Mission.
Managing the Gangetic aquifer as a recharged commons, through panchayat water budgets and crops that follow water, is how India secures SDG 6 (water and sanitation for all) and SDG 2 (end hunger) together.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 16 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
