According to the latest report from Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), India’s total annual groundwater recharge has risen from about 432 BCM in 2017 to around 448.5 BCM in 2025. The share of assessment units classified as “safe” increased from roughly 62.6 per cent in 2017 to about 73.1 per cent now, while “over-exploited” units dropped from 17.2 per cent to 10.8 per cent over the same period.
Still, despite these national-level gains, many regions continue to suffer from acute water stress. Localised depletion — driven by rising demand for agriculture, domestic and industrial use, urbanisation, erratic rainfall and over-pumping — has pushed groundwater levels down in numerous districts.
The consequences are serious: agricultural productivity is threatened, rural and urban water supply becomes insecure, and communities dependent on wells and aquifers face growing hardship. Groundwater-rich States are not immune — over-extraction in parts of north-western India, and depletion in hard-rock and arid regions, continue to show that recharge alone is not enough to guarantee water security.
While the overall trend suggests improvement, this snapshot hides large disparities. The groundwater challenge for India remains uneven: sustainable water management must go beyond aggregate recharge figures to address region-specific extraction rates, demand pressures, aquifer health and the quality of groundwater itself.
