India’s stage of groundwater extraction, which is the percentage of utilisation of groundwater against recharge, has dropped from 61.6 per cent in 2020 to 60.08 per cent in 2022, according to the latest report on the National Compilation of Dynamic Ground Water Resources in India. In 2022, around 87 per cent of the annual groundwater extracted — around 208.49 billion cubic metres (BCM) — was for irrigation, and it was around 89 per cent in 2020.

Only 30.69 BCM, around 13 per cent of the extraction, was for domestic and industrial use in 2022. In Delhi, Goa, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Chandigarh groundwater extraction for domestic use was more than 40 per cent. The report showed in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu the stage of groundwater extraction was higher than the national average in 2022 at almost 100 per cent, which meant in these states annual groundwater consumption was more than the annual extractable groundwater resource, the report said. In the states of Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka, and the Union Territories of Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry, the stage of groundwater extraction was 60-100 per cent in 2022, while in the rest of India, it was below 60 per cent.