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Geography
Pradeep Kumar

25/04/21 10:00 AM IST

Groundwater depletion

In news

With severe groundwater depletion, the cropping intensity or the amount of land planted in the winter season may decrease by up to 20% by 2025.

Research
  • The international team studied India’s three main irrigation types on winter cropped areas: dug wells, tube wells, canals, and also analysed the groundwater data from the Central Ground Water Board.
  • They found that 13% of the villages in which farmers plant a winter crop are located in critically water-depleted regions.
  • The team writes that these villages may lose 68% of their cropped area in future if access to all groundwater irrigation is lost.
  • Alternative sources The team then looked at canals to understand if they can be promoted as an alternative irrigation source and as an adaptation strategy to falling groundwater tables.
  • But the results showed that “switching to canal irrigation has limited adaptation potential at the national scale.
  • We find that even if all regions that are currently using depleted groundwater for irrigation will switch to using canal irrigation, cropping intensity may decline by 7% nationally.
Source: The Hindu

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