UPSC Mains 2025 · GS III · Q13 · 15 marks · 250 words

Examine the factors responsible for depleting groundwater in India. What are the steps taken by the government to mitigate such depletion of groundwater ?

हिन्दी में

भारत में घटते भूजल के लिए उत्तरदायी कारकों का परीक्षण कीजिए। भूजल में ऐसी क्षीणता को कम करने के लिए सरकार ने क्या कदम उठाए हैं ?

How a topper answered the closest question

Toppers wrote this one in a test series: “Overexploitation strains the quality as well as the quantity of our groundwater resources. Analyze.”

Shakti DubeyAIR 1 · CSE 2024 · 209 wordsTheir whole copy

Opening · a figure

According to a report by World Bank, India with 18% of world population has just 4% of world's fresh water reserve, which has now now led to overexploitation of ground water (as India extracts ~25% of groundwater) to fufill it's growing needs.

Body · points

Overexploitation strains the quality of ground water as well as quantity:- Greenrevolution in India has helped us acheive foodsecurity but at the same time had unintended consequences as well :-

(1) Excessive extraction decreases the ground water table.

(2) Excessive extraction disturbs the ground water increasing dissolution of underground rocks thereby impacting the quality of water.

(3) excessive use of water on feild further leads to leaching along with chemicals - making the ground water polluted (4) This is decreasing the availability of "Fresh drinking water" (5) More than 12% of areas have found increased Arsenic & even some have increased Uranium content making the quality worse

WAY FORWARD To tackle the issue of groundwater contamination & quality depletion there is a need to → improve water use efficiency → use of micro irrigation method → on feild (avoid leaching) → Rainwater harvesting (Recharging groundwater) → Revival of ponds & lakes

Close · a way forward

Since groundwater is a prominent source there is a need to conserve it's quality & quantity

2 more toppers’ answers to this question, part by part, and how they all approached it: open the question.

Toppers’ answers to other close questions

Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Main) Examination 2025, General Studies Paper III, Q13. The paper on upsc.gov.in. Themes and links to toppers’ answers are by UPSC Grade, not by UPSC.