Shallow Aquifers

Population increase has placed ever-increasing demands on the available groundwater resources, particularly for intensive agricultural activities.

In the Bundelkhand craton region, groundwater is the primary source of drinking water. Due to low rainfall, agriculture mainly depends on the goundwater supply, which comes through bore wells. Most of the time, the region faces a water crisis during the summer season as the wells and tube wells go dry.

Groundwater, the lifeline of India

Over 55 percent of India’s population relies on groundwater for irrigation, water for cattle, domestic consumption, and industrial use making India the world’s greatest groundwater extractor, surpassing the USA and China combined.

Starting May 15, 2022 Mamatha from Andhra Pradesh, and Rameshwar from Maharashtra, equipped with a mobile phone and a measuring tape, will be joining several others heading to their fields and neighbouring villages to measure wells.

India is the largest user of groundwater in the world. Agriculture, rural and urban domestic water supply and increasingly industries are shaping the dependency on groundwater.

Why de-commission defunct or failed bore wells?

According to a 2006 report by the Inter-Agency Task Force, titled ‘Gender, Water and Sanitation’

In Kerala, around half the urban population and 80% of the rural population depend on open wells on their domestic water needs. But in the last decade, the majority of observatory wells recorded an average annual decline of half a meter.

The Gond dynasties mainly flourished in the Central highlands of India. This region includes Sagar, Bhopal, and nearly half of Narmada valley, including the flanks of Vindhya and the Satpuda mountain ranges of southern Madhya Pradesh. The principal states of the Gonds were Garha-Mandla (1300 to 1789), Devgarh, Kherla and Chanda.

The environment versus development debate has increasingly become more polarised, with discussions in the public domain revealing a stark contrast of views. Development has increasingly come to symbolise ‘doing something’ and ensuring ‘visible outputs’, largely in the form of infrastructure.