Status of Groundwater in Punjab

Punjab having three perennial rivers the Ravi, the Beas and Sutluj .The Ghagar, The White Bein, Black Bein, Sakkikiran Nala are seasonal Rivers in Punjab. The three major rivers of state having their origin out of Punjab in Himachal Pradesh and Tibet .The 94% of the total area in Punjab is shown irrigated area , out of this 61.6% irrigate by tube wells and 38.3 irrigate by canals. Due to the more demand of Groundwater for ever increasing population and irrigation within a short span of time the exploitation of the precious resources has become non judicious and improper in space and time . The increasing extraction of Groundwater has resulted water levels decline especially in the fresh groundwater areas. In central Punjab areas the levels have been falling at 0.2 to 0.3 m/year.

     Groundwater is major resource of drinking water as well as for agriculture in Punjab. However uncontrolled extraction of groundwater without commensuration with the groundwater recharge and leaching of pollutants from pesticides and Fertilizers into the aquifers has resulted in pollution of Groundwater supplies. In addition to leakages from agriculture, over the last 3 decades industrial waste and municipal solid waste, industrialization and economic growth have led to the intensification of consumerism which in turn has added to problem of disposing of colossal amount of garbage generated each day.

       The land of Punjab is primarily formed of the alluvium deposited by rivers of Indus system. Activities like agriculture, water resources, forests, living spaces, industrial and commercial purpose, transportation, pastures etc share land in Punjab. About 85.5% area of total geographical area of Punjab is under agriculture, out of which some part has been utilized in developing canal and drainage irrigation system, 5.57% under forests, 8% not available for cultivation and 1% each for fallow and culturable waste land. The state land is poor in mineral resources. The improper land use or management by man is responsible for land degradation in the state. The land degradation refers to deterioration and loss of productive capacity of the soil for present and future use. It is due to various causes, but those of most immediate concern in state, are erosion, salinisation, water logging and soil pollution. The Degradation of the soil is an important problem connected with land use and environment. It affects, apart from many other or indirect implications, the productivity and fertility of soils which is factor of great agricultural importance, and its more so for an agricultural dependent state like Punjab. About 50% of the state's soil is low in nitrogen, 25% is low in phosphorus content but potassium content is generally sufficient. Organic carbon content is low.

 Agriculture Practices

 Punjab is a one of the smallest state with a total land area of only 0.33% of the world and 1.6% of the country yet it contributes to 1% of rice, 2% of the wheat and 2%of the cotton in the total world production vis-à-vis 42% rice, 55% wheat and 24% cotton production in the country . Punjab is one of the smallest states of India representing 1.6 per cent of its geographical area and 2.6 percent of it's cropped area. Punjab's geology has a far-reaching impact on its economy. The plains of Punjab was formed by the deposition of alluvium. It has deep and fertile soils. From geological and physiographic points Punjab is divisible into two regions the hill region and the plain region. The hill region is very small and includes Shivalik Hills on the eastern side, moves through Hoshiarpur district toward west. More than 90 per cent of Punjab's area is a flat plain and is a segment of Indo-Gangetic plain A very high proportion of the land is under cultivation because the Punjab plain is free from physical handicaps and deficiency of rainfall has been made up by irrigation facilities. It is only the districts of Ropar and Hoshiarpur that the cultivated area is less than 60 per cent of the total. It is in these districts that considerable land is covered by Shivalik Hills and the beds of seasonal streams that cannot be brought under cultivation.

 Wheat, Maize, Rice and Cotton are the important crops of the state. Wheat dominates the production amoung overall crop pattern. Rice is an important crop in Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Kapurthala districts. Cotton leads the production of cash crops of the state. Groundnut, Sugarcane and Potatoes being other crops. Punjab tops the production of Wheat in the country. It produces over 2 million tonnes of wheat every year. A review of the various components of the state `s physical environment indicates that intensive & extensive agriculture, high human population density and increased urbanization and industrialization has adversily affected the natural habitats and thus, the biodiversity in the state. Diverse historical events, frequent reorganizations, over exploitation of soil & water resources and consolidation of land holding have also contributed to habitat and biodiversity loss. 

 According to the 2001 census, about 2.4% people of India are living in Punjab. It shows that Punjab accommodates more people than it’s Capacity. Punjab ranks 15^th population wise in India. The total population of Punjab on 1st March 2001 stood at 24,289,296 persons as per the results of the Census of India 2001. The State has registered a lower decennial growth rate of 19.76% when compared to national average of 21.34%. The sex ratio of population has come down from 882 in 1991 to 874 in the present census. Total literacy rose to 69.95% from 58.51% during 1991 Census.

 Various economic and political policies also directly or indirectly affecting the Environment in Punjab state. The policies like free power supplies to farmers and subsidies on canal irrigation water, have provided incentives for farmers to over use water in their production practices, thereby exacerbating the problems of water logging in south western region of the state and decline in the ground water in central region  at the alarming rate  25-30 cm per annum.

  Further, Satellite-based estimates of groundwater depletion in India by Matthew Rodell¹, Isabella Velicogna & James S. Famiglietti reported in Nature(August 2009) that Groundwater in some regions are becoming overly dependent on it, consuming groundwater faster than it is naturally replenished and causing water tables to decline unremittingly. Indirect evidence suggests that this is the case in northwest India, but there has been no regional assessment of the rate of groundwater depletion. They have used terrestrial water storage-change observations from the NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites and simulated soil-water variations from a data-integrating hydrological modelling system to show that groundwater is being depleted at a mean rate of 4.0  1.0 cm yr^-1 equivalent height of water (17.7  4.5 km³ yr^-1) over the Indian states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana (including Delhi). During the study period of August 2002 to October 2008, groundwater depletion was equivalent to a net loss of 109 km³ of water, which is double the capacity of India's largest surface-water reservoir. Annual rainfall was close to normal throughout the period and we demonstrate that the other terrestrial water storage components (soil moisture, surface waters, snow, glaciers and biomass) did not contribute significantly to the observed decline in total water levels. Although our observational record is brief, the available evidence suggests that unsustainable consumption of groundwater for irrigation and other anthropogenic uses is likely to be the cause. If measures are not taken soon to ensure sustainable groundwater usage, the consequences for the 114,000,000 residents of the region may include a reduction of agricultural output and shortages of potable water, leading to extensive socioeconomic stresses. In this context the Groundwater Information system will provide an aid for policy makers for taking knowledge based policy decisions for sustainable agriculture in Punjab. The Information system provides the groundwater quality parameters including the pesticide residue status in groundwater for drinking as well as irrigation purposes. In some parts of Amritsar prevalence of brackish nature of groundwater has been reported where conjunctive use systems may be launched to tide over the situation.