DRYING GROUNDWATER: DIVERSIFY CROPS NOW, MODERNISE IRRIGATION

UNJAB once fed a hungry nation. Guided by government policy and buoyed by subsidised power, farmers embraced paddy and wheat, chemical fertilisers, and the tube well.

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The Green Revolution delivered food security to Indiabut at a staggering ecological cost that Punjab is now paying alone. Today, 73 percent of its groundwater blocks are 'overexploited'. Extraction stands at an alarming 156 percent. Nearly 97 percent of this is pulled out for irrigation-mostly for a single crop that was never native to Punjab: paddy. The science is undisputed. Punjab's groundwater in the first 100 metres might dry up by 2029. By 2039, availability could plunge below 300 metres, where extraction becomes unaffordable and the water becomes unfit for irrigation. Meanwhile, paddy still claims nearly 90 percent of Punjab's kharif acreage. The situation is turning critical in Harya