Dynamic Groundwater Resources Assessment, 2025

The annual exercise of Dynamic Ground Water Resource assessment of the country has been completed for the year 2025 by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in coordination with State Governments. As per the Report, the total Annual Ground Water Recharge in the country is 448.52 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM) and the Annual Extractable Ground Water Resources is estimated as 407.75 BCM. Further, the total Annual Ground Water Extraction of the entire country for the year 2025 has been assessed as 247.22 BCM. Based on this, the 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% for the country as a whole.

Categorisation of Assessment Units (AUs), which are generally Blocks/Tehsils/Talukas/Mandals etc, is done on the basis of the Stage of Ground Water Extraction (SoE) of the given AU for the assessment year. Assessment Units with SoE less than 70% are categorised as ‘Safe’, with SoE between 70% to 90% as ‘Semi critical’, with SoE between 90% to 100% as ‘Critical’ and those with SoE above 100% fall under ‘Over Exploited’ category. Summary of categorisation of assessment units for the country as a whole as well as for the States of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, as per the 2025 Report, is presented in Annexure.

This categorisation enables targeted actions, prioritising intensive supply and demand measures like recharge, rain water harvesting and micro-irrigation in Over-exploited, Critical and Semi-critical (OCS) areas including those in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. In contrast, Safe-category areas are marked for sustainable development and judicious regulation of groundwater use.

The dynamic ground water resource assessment forms the cornerstone of the Government’s science-based, methodical approach to groundwater management and provides a sound basis for selection of priority areas for various ground water conservation and management schemes/programmes like Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari (JSJB), Atal Bhujal Yojana, MGNREGS etc. Since its inception in 2019, every edition of JSA has focused on prioritising water stressed areas for intensive water conservation efforts. Similarly, for JSJB, which seeks to develop cost-effective, local solutions tailored to specific water challenges through community ownership, the ground water resource assessment serves as an important compass for taking up intensive recharge efforts. Importantly, during September, 2025, under the ‘National Initiative on Water Security’, launched jointly by M/o Rural Development and M/o Jal Shakti, it has been decided to spend at least 65% of MGNREGS funds on water conservation works in Over-Exploited (OE) and Critical Blocks of the country and 40% in Semi-critical Blocks.

On the regulation side, the Ground water extraction Guidelines dated 24.09.2020 issued by the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) prescribe more stringent measures with respect to ground water extraction from OCS Blocks like higher extraction charges, heavier Environmental Compensation (EC) charges and penalties and prohibition of new large-scale industries (only in OE Blocks) etc.

Although ‘Water’ is a State subject, the Central Government on its part, facilitates the water conservation and sustainable ground water management efforts of the State Governments by way of technical and financial assistance through its various schemes and projects. The major steps taken by the government in this direction for scaling up aquifer mapping, enhancing ground water conservation and recharge and ensuring long term sustainability of the resource in the country through community involvement are provided below:

NAQUIM studies have been taken up across the country by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) for delineation and characterisation of aquifers and preparation of plans for ground water management and during its Phase 1.0, the entire mappable area of the country of about 25 lakh sq. kms has been mapped and District-wise aquifer maps and ground water management plans have been shared with local administrations. Subsequent to this, NAQUIM 2.0 has also been taken up in the country, which harnesses state-of-the-art technologies for generating highly detailed, scientific aquifer data for identified priority areas.

Taking up the construction of artificial recharge and rain water harvesting activities through convergence and by promoting community involvement is the core concern of Jal Shakti Abhiyan and Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari initiatives as mentioned above. By deeply integrating public participation and converging resources, these programmes channel collective effort and funding towards artificial recharge and rainwater harvesting. Such community-driven mobilisation and convergence of efforts and resources have played a key role in enhancing the sustainability of ground water resources in the country.

M/o Jal Shakti has successfully demonstrated the efficacy of community led participatory ground water management through Atal Bhujal Yojana, which was implemented in 80 water stressed districts in 7 States. By educating and empowering the communities in scientific management of their ground water resources, this unique scheme has established a scalable decentralised ground water governance model. Under the scheme, construction/rejuvenation of more than 83,000 rain water harvesting and recharge structures was completed and more than 9 lakh Ha area was brought under efficient irrigation practices.

Further leveraging the community potential for strengthening local management of water resources, Mission Amrit Sarovar was launched by the Government of India with an aim to develop/rejuvenate at least 75 water bodies in each district of the country. As an outcome nearly 69,000 Amrit Sarovars have been constructed/rejuvenated in the country leading to enhanced water storage and ground water recharge.

These combined measures have proven pivotal in improving ground water security and ensuring long term sustainability. By providing more precise scientific inputs for ground water related planning and improving the efficiency of usage, these have led to enhancement of groundwater levels and storage, playing a critical role in meeting the agricultural and domestic requirement of this vast country.

As a result of consistent and cumulative efforts, the data indicates that the overall ground water situation in the country is showing steady improvement. As per the dynamic ground water resource assessment data of CGWB, total annual ground water recharge in the country has increased from 432 BCM (Billion Cubic Meters) to 448.52 BCM between 2017 to 2025. Similarly, the percentage of safe assessment units has increased from 62.6% to 73.14% and that of over-exploited units has declined from 17.2% to 10.8% during the same period.

The information was provided by THE UNION MINISTER FOR JAL SHAKTI SHRI C. R. PAATIL in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Categorisation of Assessment Units (AUs) in India and State of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh (As of 2025)

Source: https://tinyurl.com/3su2wj2b