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With the flick of a switch, a gush of water rushes upward from deep underground with a resonant whoosh. Two decades ago, the water table in Bhanheda Khemchand village lay shallow, within reach. Today, Sompal Pundir, a 68-year-old farmer from this village in Nanauta Block, Saharanpur, drills deeper, chasing water as its reserves shrink. He wonders: how much deeper can I go before the village runs dry?
“Back in 1975-76, when irrigation options were limited, we grew coarse grains like millet, jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet), maize, and urad (black gram), as they required less water. But over the last 20-25 years, with the availability of water through tube wells, we shifted to crops like sugarcane, paddy, and wheat because they offer guaranteed income,” Sompal explains. Now, as Saharanpur faces one of the world’s worst water crises, he reflects, “In our village, there are as many tube wells as there are families.”
The village has approximately 1,500 hectares of agricultural land, with most farmers cultivating sugarcane on 60 per cent of the fields and paddy and wheat on the remaining 40 per cent.
A detailed six-month investigation into groundwater in Uttar Pradesh reveals that what was once abundant is now in deep crisis, nearing a point of no return. India is running out of water. And fast. It withdrew more freshwater than any other country in the world, followed by China and the United States. The nation faces extremely high-water stress, meaning it is using at least 80 per cent of its available supply. Farmers continue to extract this precious resource to grow water-intensive crops, without diversifying their fields. Experts warn that excessive groundwater extraction through tube wells and borewells is causing severe underground disruption. The situation will only worsen, leading to an irreversible water scarcity crisis.
In 2023, India extracted a staggering 241 billion cubic metres (bcm) of groundwater— enough to submerge the entire area of Agra district under a 60-metre-high flood as high as Taj Mahal’s minaret.
The total amount of groundwater extracted for irrigation during this period was around 210 bcm, meaning that 8 out of 10 litres of groundwater is pumped out for irrigation.
In 2023, Uttar Pradesh alone pumped out around 46 bcm of groundwater. This volume would be enough to submerge the entire area of Agra under a water level equivalent to the height of a 3-story building.
The state has consistently ranked as the largest extractor of freshwater for irrigation in the country. Between 2013 and 2023, Uttar Pradesh extracted a total of 238 bcm—enough to meet the state’s domestic water needs for about 47 years. This accounts for 9 out of every 10 litres of water pumped in the state being used to flood the fields.
Nearly half of the districts in Uttar Pradesh are extracting groundwater unsustainably, drawing 7 out of every 10 litres of available groundwater in 2023. If this trend continues, the state could face even more severe water shortages in the future. The situation is especially dire in Western UP, where six districts are over-extracting groundwater beyond what can be naturally replenished by rainfall, putting them under severe water stress. Officials are so worried they are more frequently monitoring groundwater levels, and the news is not good.
Groundwater resource assessments, which were conducted periodically before 2022, are now carried out annually by State Ground Water Departments and the Central Ground Water Board. These assessments track how much groundwater is available, how much is being used for irrigation, industrial, and domestic purposes, and how the usage compares to the amount of groundwater replenished each year through natural processes like rainfall and surface water infiltration.
Assessment units (talukas, blocks, or mandals) are categorised based on the stage of groundwater extraction. ‘Over-exploited’ units indicate extraction exceeds the annually replenishable recharge. Units with extraction between 90-100 per cent are considered ‘Critical‘. ‘Semi-critical‘ units have extraction between 70-90 per cent, while ‘Safe‘ units have extraction below 70 per cent.
Former Senior Hydrogeologist in the Ground Water Department of Uttar Pradesh and the drafter of the current GroundWater Regulation Act, 2018, RS Sinha, raises concerns: “Groundwater resource estimation is carried out using hypothetical or ad hoc norms, along with multiple sets of data related to various groundwater uses and withdrawals, to estimate recharge and extraction, without considering the changes occurring in the groundwater level regime. This approach essentially determines the availability of groundwater resources.”
Saharanpur is one of the western UP districts that pumps out more than 100 per cent of its available groundwater, using it up faster than it can naturally replenish. “Groundwater levels used to be much higher. Now, most farmers have drilled bore wells up to 200-250 feet deep and installed submersible pumps around 70–80 feet. As the water level keeps dropping, we just keep digging deeper,” says Sompal, pointing to a well approximately 12 feet deep on his farm, where a pump is installed to extract water that flows steadily when switched on.
While canal systems still exist in Saharanpur, farmers no longer rely on them. “Canal water was unreliable—sometimes too much, too little, or unavailable. Most of us now depend on tube wells because they are easier and more reliable,” says Sompal. He explains that the small kacha canal route leading to the farm has been filled with mud because they no longer need it.
The Eastern Yamuna Canal, originating from the left bank of the Yamuna River at Tajewala, Haryana, plays a vital role in providing irrigation to key districts in western Uttar Pradesh, including Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, and Ghaziabad. Spanning 197 kilometres, the canal is designed to irrigate 221,000 hectares of agricultural land, with 52 per cent of the area cultivated during the Kharif season and 38.5 per cent during the Rabi season.
However, water availability in the Eastern Yamuna Canal varies significantly throughout the year, with critically low levels during May and June, when farmers need it most. “The situation improves in the monsoon, starting in July, and remains until October. But during the winter, water levels drop again,” explains Om Prakash Verma, Superintending Engineer of the Irrigation Work Circle in Saharanpur district. In Saharanpur, the Upper Ganga Canal also serves part of the region.
Farmers rely more on groundwater than on the canal system. “When we needed water, the canal had very little, and when we didn’t, it was full. The tube wells became a better option for us because they provide water when we need it,” says Rajkumar Singh, another farmer from Bhanhera Khemchand village.
You can also find bore wells with open pits on several farms. These pits are set up to accommodate diesel pump sets, which farmers bring in during power cuts to ensure they can irrigate their fields when there is no electricity supply.
An 11-kilometre-long sub-canal (rajwaha) still runs outside the village, but the farmers of Bhanheda Khemchand are no longer using its water, as they now rely on groundwater for its convenience and reliability.
Experts warn that unregulated groundwater use will have long-term consequences for farmers. “Tube wells are widespread in villages, and with free electricity, farmers over-extract water. This unsustainable policy won’t benefit them in the long run. Previously, re-boring was needed every 4-5 years, but now it’s almost yearly due to falling water levels. The recharge system is declining, and re-boring is becoming more frequent,” says Dr. Umar Saif, a member of the District Ground Water Council of Saharanpur.
Groundwater issues involve multiple departments and committees, yet a cohesive and effective management strategy is still lacking. Ashish Kumar Singh Chaudhary, the Nodal Officer and Executive Engineer of the Groundwater Department in Saharanpur, explains, “Uttar Pradesh is a vast state with countless households and farmers relying on groundwater, making it difficult to track all users. There is also a widespread lack of awareness about borewell registration. Many have been using bore wells for decades without registering them, though newer farmers do register and receive No Objection Certificates (NOCs).”
He adds, “Our department is not involved in groundwater restoration efforts; we are purely a monitoring body. We provide data on current groundwater levels, whether they are declining or rising, but we cannot actively intervene.”
The majority of farmers in Uttar Pradesh continue to grow water-intensive crops like paddy, wheat, and sugarcane, putting immense pressure on the state’s already dwindling groundwater resources. This crop pattern, particularly the dominance of paddy, is pushing the region closer to an unsustainable water crisis.
As the second-largest rice-growing state in India, it produced approximately 154 million tons of rice over the last decade, from 2013 to 2023 and the land not used for rice cultivation is dedicated to other water-intensive cash crops.
In Uttar Pradesh, growing one kilogram of rice requires 649 litres of groundwater—nearly 1.5 times more than the national average of 452 litres. Meanwhile, millets, a more water-efficient crop, require only five litres of water to produce a kilogram, yet remain vastly underutilised.
Nearly one in four farmlands in Uttar Pradesh is dedicated to rice, making it the second most cultivated crop in the state. Along with wheat and sugarcane, these three crops dominate about three out of four of the total cropped area.
This heavy dependency on rice, wheat and sugarcane is more extreme in the top five districts for groundwater extraction, where more than half of the farmlands are used exclusively for these water-intensive crops.
Farmers pointed to multiple economic incentives that keep them growing water-intensive crops like rice even as they watch their water dwindle away and even in areas poorly suited for rice cultivation, resulting in lower yields. “Paddy farming consumes the most water. During the sowing period, we have to keep the fields submerged in water for at least 60 days.” Sompal estimates, “The water consumed in cultivating 8 acres (3.24 hectares) of sugarcane over two years is roughly the same as the water required for 4 acres (1.62 hectares) of paddy in six months.”
Farmers grow paddy for its steady income, he explains. “Sugarcane sustains us for a long time, but rice and wheat are our cash crop. Millet and other crops are low-cost to grow, but there’s no certainty of income. On one hectare, we harvest around 87 to 100 quintals of rice, which sells for Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 per quintal in the market. We don’t even wait for the government procurement process—by the time it begins, we’ve already sold our rice in private markets”.
For millions in Uttar Pradesh, groundwater is an invisible lifeline. Its significance grew after India faced critical food shortages in the 1960s, including a major famine in 1965–66. The state also grappled with severe food shortages. To combat hunger, the government introduced the Green Revolution, encouraging the cultivation of water-thirsty crops like wheat, and paddy. These crops were supported by minimum price guarantees and subsidised electricity for groundwater pumping. This shift drastically altered traditional cropping patterns and accelerated groundwater depletion.
“The Minimum Support Price (MSP) plays a significant role in farmers’ decisions to grow wheat and rice. Even though only about 7-8 per cent of farmers sell their produce at MSP, it acts as a benchmark for market prices. For example, if the government sets MSP for wheat at Rs 2,500 per quintal, the open market price typically hovers around this figure, even if the government doesn’t purchase most of the produce. This stability drives farmers to grow these crops,” explains S P Singh, an independent agricultural expert who has worked on various projects with organisations such as the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and the World Bank.
Singh adds that the small landholdings in the state further exacerbate the issue. “More than 90 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s farmers are either marginal or small, which forces them to prioritise crops that can provide stable income, such as rice and wheat.”
Rakesh Kumar Maurya, Deputy Director of the Agriculture Department in Saharanpur, argued that “Paddy, wheat, and sugarcane are the three main crops here. Farmers don’t consider whether a crop is water-intensive or not; they prioritise their economics. If a crop is economically favourable, they will grow it; if it isn’t, they won’t.”
Despite the alarming water scarcity, farmers in Uttar Pradesh continue to prioritise paddy and sugarcane—crops that consume enormous amounts of water. The area irrigated for rice rose slightly from an equivalent of six to seven farmlands out of 25, and for sugarcane, from 2.5 to three. Meanwhile, the area watered for wheat shrunk from 12 to 11.
While western UP districts are the major groundwater users for irrigation, the highest rice production volumes come from non-western districts like Shahjahanpur, Kheri, Barabanki, Azamgarh, and Siddharth Nagar that have a water profile better suited for rice cultivation.
In the last 10 years, Shahjahanpur recorded the highest rice production volume in Uttar Pradesh, reaching 6.55 million tons. In contrast, Saharanpur, despite being among the top groundwater-withdrawing districts, produced 1.5 million tons during the same period.
Non-western districts like Auraiya, Shahjahanpur, Pilibhit, Chandauli, and Kanpur Dehat lead in rice yields, with Auraiya achieving 3.26 tonnes per hectare. In contrast, despite high groundwater extraction, the western district of Ghaziabad has a comparatively lower yield at 2.66 tonnes per hectare.
The highest production volume does not equate to high yield. Except for Shahjahanpur, the other districts with high production volumes do not show high yields.
Agriculture expert S P Singh explains, “In eastern Uttar Pradesh, where waterlogging due to floods is a persistent challenge, paddy remains a more suitable crop choice. However, in the western part of the state, where farmers primarily rely on groundwater, there is a need for substantial incentives to encourage a shift toward alternative crops.”
To address the imminent water crisis, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana was launched a decade ago. Uttar Pradesh is significantly lagging behind in adopting micro-irrigation practices while states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh have made notable progress in improving irrigation efficiency.
As of August 2024, Karnataka stands out with 1.68 million hectares of micro-irrigated farmlands — or 22 per cent of the country’s total. Maharashtra ranks second, with 11 per cent of its agricultural land employing micro-irrigation. Just four per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s farmland utilises micro-irrigation.
Three major groundwater extractors—Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab—are making very little progress in adopting micro-irrigation practices. An analysis of the data shows that in Uttar Pradesh, the equivalent of only two out of 100 farms are covered under micro-irrigation, while Madhya Pradesh has four farms using this method. Rajasthan shows slightly better progress, with 11 out of 100 farms using micro-irrigation, but Punjab has seen negligible adoption.
Farmers in the top groundwater-pumping districts of Uttar Pradesh have shown little interest in adopting micro-irrigation practices. In Ghaziabad, only four out of 100 farms have micro-irrigation facilities, while in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Firozabad, Shamli, and Saharanpur, just two out of 100 farms each are covered.
Among these few exceptions is the farm of 80-year-old Kameshwar Prasad Sharma in Saharanpur. A former agricultural scientist at Punjab University in Ludhiana, Sharma adopted micro-irrigation on his nearly six-hectare farm in Ababakarpur village, Behat Tehsil, in December 2022.
“I use three irrigation methods—flood irrigation, an underground pipe system with small outlets, and micro-irrigation. All three rely on groundwater as the primary source," he explains.
“My first bore well, drilled at 150 feet, stopped yielding water, so I drilled a second one at 200 feet in 2021. In December 2022, I installed drip and sprinkler systems on the second bore well, which has made a big difference. I grow wheat, vegetables, and manage mango orchards. Thanks to micro-irrigation, the groundwater level on my farm hasn’t declined in the past two years. However, as my orchards expand, I’ll soon need flood irrigation. The 200-foot bore well won’t suffice for that, so I’m planning to drill a third one at 300 feet”.
Sharma observed significant improvements in efficiency after adopting micro-irrigation. “Previously, with flood irrigation, I was getting two quintals of wheat per bigha (1 bigha is 0.25 Hectare in UP). Now, that has increased to three quintals per bigha, which is the biggest benefit for me. The water-use efficiency in micro-irrigation is much higher than flood irrigation. The water level has remained stable and I’ve saved over 30-40 per cent of water. Additionally, with less operation of the tube well motor, electricity consumption has reduced,” he happily adds.
With the aim of enhancing water use efficiency in irrigation, the Horticulture Department in Uttar Pradesh is installing micro-irrigation systems under the ‘Per Drop More Crop’ scheme.
Gampal Singh, the District Horticulture Officer of Saharanpur tells, “Farmers are gradually adopting micro-irrigation by observing each other; when one farmer benefits, his neighbour is also attracted to it. Our biggest challenge is to create awareness among farmers about its benefits and make them technically proficient. If micro-irrigation is fully implemented, the decreasing groundwater level will start to rise”.
Until November 2024, only 1,500 hectares of agricultural land in Saharanpur, out of a net cultivated area of 3,63,791 hectares, had been covered with micro-irrigation. The officer mentions that the target for this financial year is to bring 1,840 hectares under micro-irrigation.
Vijay Bahadur Dwivedi, Director of the Horticulture Department, Uttar Pradesh, highlighted the growing adoption of micro-irrigation across the state. “The state has surpassed its 2024-25 target, with over 0.4 million farmers registering, exceeding the goal of 136,000, and 100,000 systems already installed. Farmers now recognise benefits like significant water savings and improved productivity,” he said.
He added, “Given the high demand, we will request the central government to increase the target, as it is tied to the subsidy budget.”
What if there was a solution right under their feet—one that could dramatically ease the pressure on dwindling groundwater reserves? The answer may lie in a crop that is often overlooked in the race for water-intensive rice and sugarcane: millet. However, the journey toward this shift is far from simple.
Growing 1 kg of rice uses 649 litres of water, while millets need just five. If farmers in Uttar Pradesh shifted 10 per cent of their irrigated rice fields to millets, the state could save 993 million cubic metres of groundwater—enough to meet the domestic needs of Lucknow district for over 75 years at the current rate.
This estimate is based on a detailed calculation of the blue water footprint for both crops, considering factors like the area under irrigation, production volumes, and water use per hectare. By modeling the potential shift, we calculated the water savings resulting from switching 10 per cent of paddy cultivation to millets.
Farmers like Sompal Pundir have faced challenges in diversifying crops. “Last year, some of us tried growing urad and jowar, but the animals—Nilgai antelope, stray cows, and calves—attacked our fields. We had to guard them day and night. The yield is low, but the price is good. After this, we decided it’s safer to stick with paddy, wheat, and sugarcane. If the government could offer boundary protection or compensation, we might try again.”
Experts like S P Singh and R S Sinha suggest that the key lies in providing financial and infrastructural incentives for farmers to shift from water-intensive crops. Without this support, such changes remain unattainable. They also emphasise the need for innovative solutions and targeted policies to protect and restore depleted aquifers.
A wealth of underground water helped farmers grow crops like paddy to sustain. Sompal Pundir fears, “If groundwater continues to be used unsustainably, the land will dry up forcing us to leave our homes and migrate to the cities for manual labour.”
(Reporting for this story was supported by the Environmental Data Journalism Academy- a program of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and Thibi)
Data analysis was conducted in Google Sheets. The results and the full methodology can be accessed here.