Examine the factors responsible for depleting groundwater in India. What are the steps taken by the government to mitigate such depletion of groundwater?
Approach · directive: “examine / what”
What it asks · Examine the natural, economic and governance causes of groundwater depletion and review the government’s regulatory, recharge and demand-side measures.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Examine the factors responsible for depleting groundwater in India — use, incentives, hydrogeology and governance
- Explain the steps taken by the government to mitigate the depletion
Open with · India is the world’s largest user of groundwater; nationally extraction is about 61% of the extractable resource, but 730 of 6,762 assessment units are over-exploited (2025).
Cover
- Irrigation dominance: most extraction goes to farms; water-intensive paddy and sugarcane in semi-arid Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra.
- Perverse incentives: free or flat-rate farm power, MSP procurement tilted to paddy and wheat, cheap borewells.
- Urban and industrial demand: paved surfaces cut recharge; unregulated extraction by cities and industries.
- Hydrogeology and climate: hard-rock aquifers of the peninsula store little; erratic rainfall reduces recharge.
- Governance gaps: groundwater rights tied to land ownership, little metering, weak State regulation.
- Government steps: Atal Bhujal Yojana (community-led demand management), Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain, Amrit Sarovar, national aquifer mapping, CGWA extraction guidelines (2020).
- Also: Per Drop More Crop micro-irrigation, rural-employment funds for water conservation in over-exploited blocks, a model groundwater bill for States.
Close with · Lasting recovery needs a shift from supply to demand management — crop diversification, farm-power pricing reform and community management of aquifers.
Add value (verified)
- The 2025 Dynamic Ground Water Resources assessment puts India’s stage of groundwater extraction at 60.63%. PIB, Ministry of Jal Shakti — Dynamic Groundwater Resources Assessment, 2025 (29 January 2026) ↗“Stage of Ground Water Extraction (SoE), which is a measure of Annual Ground Water Extraction for all uses (irrigation, industrial and domestic uses) over Annual Extractable Ground Water Resource is worked out to be 60.63%”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2025, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 249 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
India is the world's largest user of groundwater. Nationally, extraction is about 61% of the extractable resource (60.63% in the 2025 assessment), but 730 of 6,762 assessment units are over-exploited — the average hides a crisis in the north-west and the hard-rock peninsula.
Factors behind depletion
- Irrigation dominance: most extraction goes to farms, and water-hungry paddy and sugarcane are grown in semi-arid Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra.
- Perverse incentives: free or flat-rate farm power, MSP procurement tilted to paddy and wheat, and cheap borewells make pumping the rational private choice.
- Urban and industrial demand: paved surfaces cut recharge while cities and industries extract with little regulation.
- Hydrogeology and climate: the peninsula's hard-rock aquifers store little; erratic and intense rainfall reduces recharge.
- Governance gaps: groundwater rights tied to land ownership, negligible metering, weak State regulation and fragmented data.
Government steps
- Community demand management: Atal Bhujal Yojana in water-stressed blocks, with incentives for States and villages that plan and save water.
- Recharge: Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain, Amrit Sarovar ponds, and check dams and recharge structures built with MGNREGS funds in over-exploited blocks.
- Regulation and knowledge: CGWA extraction guidelines (2020) for industry and infrastructure, national aquifer mapping, and a model groundwater bill for States.
- Farm-level: Per Drop More Crop micro-irrigation and State incentives for diversification away from paddy.
Lasting recovery needs a shift from supply to demand management — crop diversification, farm-power pricing reform and community management of aquifers as the unit of planning — before more blocks cross the line.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify). UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.