Distorted picture

India's groundwater recovery may be misleading, as new assessment methods inflate annual recharge figures and discontinue on-ground verification

-  PRADEEP KUMAR MISHRA AND MANISH MISHRA

AFTER A decade of declining levels, India saw the stage of groundwater development, the ratio of annual groundwater extraction to the annual availability, reach 62 per cent in 2013. By 2017, this figure had worsened to 63.33 per cent. However, the most recent government assessment in 2023 shows improvement: the country's stage of groundwater development reached 59.26 per cent, with 73 per cent of assessment units now "safe" (a stage of groundwater development at 70 per cent or below). This is a marked improvement from 2017, when only 63 per cent of units fell within the safe category.

Experts warn that this apparent improvement might be a numbers game rather than a true reflection of on-ground recovery. They argue that a shift in groundwater assessment methodology introduced in 2017 has inflated the appearance of recovery. This revised methodology expanded the area considered in groundwater assessments and estimated more significant groundwater availability. Crucially, it also removed the requirement for on-ground verification of water levels, raising questions about the accuracy of the reported data.