Shallow attempt

Uttar Pradesh is India's largest groundwater extractor. Water-guzzling crops, unregulated borewells and a lack of policy enforcement have pushed the state to the brink of water crisis

- VARSHA SINGH SAHARANPUR, UTTAR PRADESH

TWO DECADES ago, the water table in Bhanheda Khemchand was shallow and easily accessible. “Back then, we relied on rain and rain-fed canals to irrigate our fields,” recalls 68-year-old Sompal Pundir, a farmer from the village in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district. Today, borewells in the village reach down to 76 metres (m)—deeper than the Qutub Minar, the world's tallest brick minaret.

Pundir often wonders how much deeper the borewells can go before they run dry. He is not alone. Across Uttar Pradesh—India's most populous state—farmers are confronting an increasingly urgent crisis: the steady depletion of groundwater that sustains their crops and livelihoods. In 2024, the state extracted 46.76 billion cubic metres or BCM of groundwater, the highest among all Indian states, according to the report “National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India 2024”, released by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti in January 2025. Between 2013 and 2023, the state cumulatively extracted 238 BCM, enough to meet its domestic water needs for the next 47 years. About 90 per cent of this was for farming.

The report flags groundwater extraction as unsustainable once it exceeds 70 per cent of the annual recharge. By that measure, 38 districts—or half the state—were already in the danger zone in 2024. Worse, five districts in western Uttar Pradesh crossed into over-exploitation, extracting over 100 per cent of their annual recharge.