Curbs on Groundwater Extraction in Pkd Trigger Farmer Protests

Chittoor, Malampuzha among restricted areas; district groundwater officer writes to department seeking relaxation to allow crop-based allocation of water

- Manoj Viswanathan @Kochi

The decision of the state ground water department (GWD) to impose restrictions on extraction of groundwater from borewells for irrigation purposes in the critical zones of Chittoor and Malampuzha taluks in Palakkad district has triggered protests by farmers. Meanwhile, the Palakkad district groundwater officer has written to the department seeking to relax the curbs to allow crop-based allocation of water.

The state had implemented the Kerala Ground Water (Control and Regulation) Act in 2002. Areas where removal is more than 90% of the annually extractable water are classified as critical while areas that extract 70-90% are categorized semi-critical. Chittoor and Malampuzha, besides Kasaragod taluk are the critical zones in the state.