Underground water crisis in Punjab: A spatio-temporal analysis

Abstract

Punjab, an agrarian state of India, is facing severe underground water crisis associated with high degree depletion of these water resources after the introduction of Green Revolution. Nonetheless, Punjab is getting less amount of river water due to political reasons like Indus water treaty, damming and diversion of river water, water conflict with Haryana, Rajasthan, and central government. However, the water demand for irrigation and domestic as well as industrial purposes is significantly high. In Punjab, out of the total area of 4158 thousand ha under agriculture in state, an area of 4070 thousand ha (97.9 percent) is getting irrigation from canals (27 percent) and tubewells (73 percent). Resultantly, the underground water is being depleted at much faster pace and a large number of blocks in Punjab fall under the category of Over-Exploited. Therefore, the present paper addresses the issue of overexploitation of these underground water resources. The study is based on secondary data collected from various sources. Statistical methods are applied for deriving accurate results. Moreover, the present study provides solutions and alternatives to tackle with the present Punjab underground waters crisis.