Look up any district in India to see how hard its groundwater is being used, how that changed since 2009, and how much rainwater recharge it would take to bring it back. Figures are from the Central Ground Water Board.
61%of India's safely usable groundwater is pumped out every year (2025)
247.22 bcmpumped out in 2025, against 407.75 bcm that can be taken out safely
3states and UTs take out more than rain puts back: Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana
1 in 9assessment blocks in India were over-exploited in 2025 (730 of 6,762), against 1 in 6 in 2017
India over 20 years
Stage of extraction for the whole country, 2004 to 2025. The national number looks stable, but it hides districts pumping two or three times what rain replaces.
Safe · up to 70%Semi-critical · 70–90%Critical · 90–100%Over-exploited · above 100%
Most over-pumped districts
2025 assessment. 200% means twice as much water is taken out as is put back.
3,94,500 of 24,24,540 water bodies (16%) are not in use: dried up, silted, built over or polluted. Bringing them back is one of the cheapest ways to recharge groundwater.
24,24,540ponds, tanks, lakes and other water bodies
14,42,993of them are ponds (60%)
84%still in use (20,30,040)
38,496encroached upon
Ponds14,42,993
Tanks3,81,805
Lakes22,361
Reservoirs2,92,280
Check dams and percolation tanks2,26,217
Others58,884
Source: 1st Census of Water Bodies, Ministry of Jal Shakti (counted in 2018-19, published 2023).
Every 1 mm of rain on 1 m² is 1 litre of water. A 100 m² roof in a city with 700 mm of rain sheds about 56,000 litres a year, enough to recharge a borewell instead of running into a drain. Pair recharge with cutting waste and the numbers turn around.