<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Centre Released the National Compilation On Dynamic Ground Water Resources Of India, for the entire country for the year 2022. Issues underscored in the report are as follows:<br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />”<br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />”1. A detailed analysis of the information collected from the assessment indicates increase in ground water recharge which may mainly be attributed to increase in recharge from canal seepage, return flow of irrigation water and recharges from water bodies/tanks &amp; water conservation structures. Further, analysis indicates improvement in ground water conditions in 909 assessment units in the country when compared with 2017 assessment data. In addition, overall decrease in number of over-exploited units and decrease in stage of groundwater extraction level have also been observed.<br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />”<br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />”2. The main source of replenishable ground water resources is recharge from rainfall, which contributes to nearly 61 % of the total annual ground water recharge. India receives about 119 cm. of rain annually on average, with high spatial variation. A major part of the country receives rainfall mainly during SW Monsoon season, spread over the months of June to September, except in Tamil Nadu, where the major contribution is from NE monsoon during the period October’ December. There are also States such as Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand which receive significant rainfall in all seasons.<br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />”<br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />”3. In the present assessment, the total annual ground water recharge has been assessed as 437.60 billion cubic meter (bcm). Keeping an allocation for natural discharge, the annual extractable ground water resource works out as 398.08 bcm. The total annual ground water extraction (as in 2022) has been assessed as 239.16 bcm. The average stage of ground water extraction for the country as a whole works out to be about 60.08 %.<br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />”<br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />”4. Type of rock formations and their storage and transmission characteristics have a significant influence on ground water recharge. Porous formations such as the alluvial formations in the IndoGanga-Brahmaputra basin generally have high specific yields and are good repositories of ground water. Ground water occurrence in the fissured formations occupying nearly two-thirds of the geographical area of the country, on the other hand, is mostly limited to the weathered, jointed and fractured portions of the rocks.</span>”<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">&nbsp;<br />”5. Out of the total 7089 assessment units (Blocks/ Districts/ Mandals/ ii Talukas/Firkas) in the country 1006 units in various States (14 %) have been categorized as ‘OverExploited’ indicating ground water extraction exceeding the annually replenishable ground water recharge. A total of 260 (4 %) assessment units have been categorized as ‘Critical’, where the stage of ground water extraction is between 90-100 % of annual extractable resources available. There are 885 ‘Semi-Critical’ units (12 %), where the stage of ground water extraction is between 70 % and 90 % and 4780 (67 %) assessment units have been categorized as ‘Safe’ where the stage of Ground water extraction is less than 70 %. Apart from this, there are 158 assessment units (2 %), which have been categorized as ‘Saline’ as major part of the ground water in phreatic aquifers is brackish or saline.</div>”<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />”6. The over-exploited assessment units are mostly concentrated in :(i) the north western part of the country including parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Western Uttar Pradesh where even though the replenishable resources are abundant, there have been indiscriminate withdrawals of ground water leading to over-exploitation; (ii) the western part of the country, particularly in parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, where due to arid climate, groundwater recharge itself is limited, leading to stress on the resource and (iii) the southern part of peninsular India including parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where due to inherent characteristics of crystalline aquifers, the ground water availability is low. In some areas of the country, good continuous rainfall and management practices like ground water augmentation and conservation measures through government and private initiatives have resulted in improvement in ground water situation. Ground water resources assessment, like other fields of science, requires continuous refinements.</div>”<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />”7. The overall stage of groundwater extraction in the country is 60.08 %. The stage of ground water extraction is very high in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Dadra &amp; Nagar Haveli and Daman &amp; Diu where it is more than 100%, which implies that in these states the annual ground water consumption is more than annual extractable ground water resources. In the states of Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and UTs of Chandigarh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry, the stage of ground water extraction is between 60-100%. In rest of the states, the stage of ground water extraction is below 60 %.</div>”<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />”8. Ground Water Resources Assessment is carried out at periodical intervals jointly by State Ground Water Departments and Central Ground Water Board under the guidance of the respective State Level Committee on Ground Water Assessment at State Levels and under the overall supervision of the Central Level Expert Group. Such joint exercises have been taken up earlier in 1980, 1995, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2020.<br />”<br />”9. Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) monitors ground water levels four times a year during January, April/ May, August and November through a network of 23209 observation wells spreading throughout the country.</div>