Page 237 - economic_survey_2021-2022

Sustainable Development and Climate Change 211

Figure 18: Categorization of Ground Water Resource Assessment Units (2004-2020)

100% 1 1 1 1 1 1
90% 15 14 16 16 17 16
Percent of Assessment Units 70% 14 15
3
4
4
4
80%
3
5
9
10
11
10
60%
50%
40%
30%
20% 71 73 68 69 63 64
10%
0%
2004 2009 2011 2013 2017 2020
Safe Semi-critical Critical Over-Exploited Saline
Source: National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India, 2020

6.27 The extent of ground water extraction varies across the country. The ground water
assessment units (blocks/ taluks/ mandals/ tehsil/ firkas etc.) are categorized based on the Stage
of Extraction (SoE) as ‘Safe’ if SoE < 70 per cent; ‘Semi-critical’ if SoE > 70 per cent and
<= 90 per cent; ‘Critical’ if SoE >90 per cent and <=100 per cent and ‘Over-exploited’ if SoE>
100 per cent. Assessment unit in which the ground water resources are entirely saline, have
been categorised as ‘Saline’. Figure 18 shows the per cent of number of assessment units of
India under different categories (Safe, Semi-critical, Critical, Over-exploited and Saline) during
2004-2020. During this period, units categorized as “safe”, have declined from 2009 (73 per
cent) to 2020 (64 per cent). “Semi-critical” units have increased from 9 per cent in 2009 to
15 per cent in 2020. The share of “Critical” units has remained in the range of 3-5 per cent
during 2004-2020. The share of “Over-exploited” units, accounted for 14-17 per cent of total
assessment units during 2004-20. In addition, approximately one per cent of assessment units
have been categorized as “saline”.

6.28 Figure 19 presents the categorization of ground water resource assessment units across
India in 2020. It can be seen that over-exploitation of ground water resources, i.e. extraction
exceeding the annually replenishable ground water recharge is concentrated in north-west and
parts of southern India.