A

Ground Water Depletion
Hp Ground Water Depletion in India
A study on the ground water depletion across the World ,specifically in India. The causes of depletion,current scenario and the way forward

Krishnapriya J 12HS60006 MHRM, IIT Kharagpur
11/11/2012 1

Table of Contents
1. ABSTRACT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 2. OBJECTIVES OF THE TERM PAPER-----------------------------------------------------4 3. REVIEW OF LITERATURE------------------------------------------------------------------4 3.1. INTRODUCTION----------------------------------------------------------------------4 3.2. CURRENT GROUND WATER SCENARIO & DEPLETION TRENDS ---6 4 MAJOR CAUSES FOR GROUND WATER
According to the central groundwater board, 15 percent of the administrative blocks are over-exploited (more water is extracted than is replenished each year) and are growing at a rate of 5.5 percent per annum. There are more than 27 million private tube-wells in the country Pervasive usage of individual wells makes monitoring and enforcement extremely difficult, and hence impedes conventional policy design to check over-extraction. World Bank estimate in 2005 warned that if the cur-rent trends continue, 60% of all aquifers in India will be in a critical condition within 20 years . In a recent study, Rodell et al. used Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites operated by NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to calculate the loss rate to be around 20% higher than the Indian authorities have previously estimated. The depletion of ground water has varied implications in various regions in India. In Punjab, Haryana and Western Rajasthan, the main consequence has been salinity; in North Gujarat and Southern Rajasthan, it is fluoride contamination of groundwater; in hard-rock Southern India, it is declining well yields and increasing pumping costs arising from competitive deepening of wells. In West Bengal , the consequence is arsenic contamination .In coastal areas, the most serious consequence of intensified pumping of groundwater for irrigation is saline