SPH -JHS Coverpage 15-1 June 2020 single 1

J. Hortl. Sci.
Vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020

Review

Groundwater Decline and Prolonged Drought Could Reduce Vigour,
Enhance Vulnerability to Diseases and Pests and Kill Perennial Horticultural

Crops: Needs Urgent Policy Intervention

GaneshamurthyA.N., Kalaivanan D., Rupa T.R. and Raghupathi H.B.
Division of Natural Resource Management

ICAR - Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru - 560 089.
Email : angmurthy@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Perennial horticulture in India has undergone a change from rainfed system to drip
fertigation systems and from isolated hedge and bund trees to high intensity orchard
systems with enhanced number of trees per unit area. In several parts, particularly in the
Deccan plateau, the system has now become completely dependent on water pumped
from tube wells. Severe competition for water from tube wells makes farmers to devote
more water for cash rich annual crops and even sell water for city dwellers nearby. As a
consequence, the groundwater level in the past three decades has fallen from few feet to
above thousand feet. At several places it has crossed the “peak water”. Frequent and
prolonged exposure of fruit trees and nuts to drought coupled with ground water depletion
has led to soil profile drying leading to reduced vigour and enhanced vulnerability to
diseases and pests. This has led to withering of fruit and nut trees. Perennial crops are
likely to become increasingly maladapted to their environment, particularly in the earlier
period of climate change they are more likely to be attacked by diseases and insects.
Coconuts, areca nuts and mango trees have died in several places and the government
constituted committees have recommended compensation to the farmers. As a country,
we have dramatically increased our reliance on groundwater. 175 million Indians are now
fed with food produced with the unsustainable use of groundwater. This increase has
dried up rivers and lakes, because there is a hydrologic connection between groundwater
and surface water. Yet the legal rules governing water use usually ignore the link between
law and science. The issue needs thorough examination and needs policy interventions
to come out of this vicious circle.

Keywords: Drought, Fruit trees, Groundwater depletion, Peak water, Perennial crops, Policy issue

INTRODUCTION
Perennial horticulture in arid and semi-arid regions of
India was a rainfed system since beginning. With time,
the area under perennial horticulture has shown
enor mous incr ea se a nd with a dva ncement in
technology perennial horticulture along with annual
horticultural crops and agriculture started receiving
irrigation both through surface irrigation and through
drip fertigation systems. Also, both number of trees
per unit area and the intensity of cultivation have
increased. Of late in arid and semiarid regions,
particularly in the southern, central and north-western
states, very large number of tube wells have been dug

and put to use for irrigation. Such tube wells were
sunk in highly unscientific way and are resulting in
increase in tube well depth and deteriorating quality
of water. The system now has become completely
dependent on water pumped from tube wells. In the
past two to three decades the groundwater levels are
falling steeply. Occurrence of prolonged drought,
early withdrawal of monsoon, and reduced number
of r ainy days spr eading over short periods are
exposing the trees to severe moisture stress and
symptoms of declining tree vigour could be felt. In
the past five years, several incidences of tr ees
wither ing like coconut and ar eca nuts, mango,

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Ganeshamurthy et al.

pomegranate etc. are being reported. Government has
constituted committees to look into the causes and
compensations are being given to the farmers for the
loss of trees. There is hence a need to scientifically
look and rethink on perennial horticulture in the wake
of emergence of these situations.

Impact of prolonged drought on perennial
horticultural crops
Distribution of trees in arid and semi-arid lands
depends mainly on ra infall, sur face water, and
groundwater and air moisture. Change in climate of
the given region (rainfall, temperatures, wind) further
affects the distribution of trees. Soil quality and extent
of its deterioration decides the future of existing
population and scope for further expansion. Each tree
species is adapted to certain conditions and is located
in its “niche”. When optimal conditions are widely
distributed, forests or shrubs may cover large areas.
The natural distribution of vegetation has long been
a lter ed by huma n activities like unsustaina ble
cropping systems. For example, by growing fruit
trees, nuts and other perennial crops by exploiting the
ground water in such places where its over drawing
is unsustainable and can cause havoc. Conversion of
forest lands to agricultural use in the past and more
recently from agricultural use to unsusta inable
perennial systems are among the major causes of soil
degradation in arid and semi-arid areas. Furthermore,
global warming is expected to result in rainfall
decrease throughout most of the arid and semi-arid
zones, which will lead to more severe water scarcity
and increased desertification risks. Some of the semi-
a r id r egions sta r ted showing symptoms of
desertification like Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts
of Karnataka, Anantapur and Madanapalli in Andhra
Pradesh etc.

Occasionally, fruit tr ees decline and often die.
Diseases affecting the leaves, fruit, and twigs of fruit
trees usually do not cause the trees to die, with
exceptions for such diseases which causes death of
trees like coconut wilt and bud rot, citrus and guava
wilts and recently pomegranate wilt and nodal blight,
wilt in many perennial crops. Leaf, fruit, or twig
diseases weaken the tree, interrupt normal bearing,
and reduce fruit quality, but the trees usually survive.
The cause of death for most fruit trees is damage to
the root, trunk, or the crown. Drought, flooding,
crown and root diseases, and borers, winter cold,

frosts, can cause injury to these parts but not lethal
to the trees. Frequently, a combination of two or more
of these is the cause of death. The most severity being
r epor ted a nd becoming mor e common tha n
exceptions is the soil profile drying in arid and
semiarid regions caused due to drought coupled with
over exploitation of groundwater and drought alone
usually will not kill healthy fruit trees, unless the
drought is prolonged and severe coupled with decline
in water table due to over draft of ground water. But
gradual exposure of trees to drought weakens the
trees which predisposes trees to insect pests and
diseases.

A gradual decline in tree health as a consequence of
limiting moisture is a common problem for many
trees, more so, underclose spacing mono cropping,
intensively managed orchard systems. Symptoms
may include stunted growth, premature leaf drop, late
spring leaf development, sparse foliage, light green
or yellow foliage, twig and branch die-back and many
other abnormal symptoms like flowering but not
bearing fruits to the expected crop load. As mentioned
above, usually there is no single reason for tree
decline. Often, a combination of factors, linked to one
another, reduces a tree’s vigour. Stress on a tree can
make it vulnerable to additional problems. Diseases
and insects often capitalize on the tree’s low vigour
and accelerate its decline. Trees survive str ess
temporarily by using stored food and water reserves,
but once these reserves are used up, symptoms of
decline begin to appear. Because trees are so efficient
at storing food and water reserves, it may take 2 or 3
years after a stress episode before decline symptoms
appear. One of the most common causes of stress is
planting orchards tr ee species not suited for a
particular site. Many species have specific site
requirements. Site characteristics that influence tree
growth in limited moisture situations include soil
moisture holding capacity, soil moisture availability,
soil resource base erosion, mainly the organic front
and drainage. All these come under land use planning
which is sur pr isingly ignor ed while pla nning
perennial crops entrepreneurships.

Declining trees as a consequence of prolonged
drought and overdraft of groundwater leading to
profile dryness make trees weak and susceptible to
insect pests and diseases. Certain insects and diseases
can cause defoliation leading to further stress. Most
healthy trees can survive some defoliation, but

Groundwater decline and perennial horticultural crops

defoliation year after year can cause decline and even
death. Mango foliage damage caused by hoppers,
loppers, beetles etc. in the very initial stage of leaf
emergence is a typical example in southern and
western part of India. Apple scab and anthracnose of
shade trees are examples of diseases that cause
infected leaves to fall prematurely. The stem and root
borers take the opportunity of tree weakness and
overtake the tree health and intensify the attack. A
typical example is the spurge in the stem borers of
Arabica coffee in Coorg and mango in South India.
Leaf diseases like powdery mildew and anthracnose
and other diseases cause severe damage to foliage,
inflor escence a nd fr uits. Tr ee wilts due to
Ceratocystis are emerging in mango in recent years
which normally happen during trees exposed to long
period of moisture stress.

Cli mate cha nge effe cts on i nsec ts a nd
pathogens under horticultural ecosystems
Increase in summer temperature will generally activate
insect development rates. Some insects may shift from
completing a generation every two years (semivoltism)
to completing one generation per year (univoltism), a
factor that contributes to large-scale outbreaks.
Warmer winters could also lead to more successful
survival. Outbreaks may also increase in entirely new
areas crossing the limits of host species due to
wa rming temperatures r elative to their current
distribution. The indirect effects of climate change
on insects are more complex; therefore, they are more
difficult to predict. Because trees are likely to become
incr easingly ma la dapted to their envir onment,
particularly in the earlier period of climate change
they are more likely to be attacked by insects.

Clima te change will a ffect the developmenta l
sequence of insects and their predators. Natural insect
enemies of defoliator and borer species depend on
climatic factors to maintain their life processes and
synchronicity with their insect host and the habitat
in which they live. Key parasitoids and predatory
species population may dwindle due to over use of
chemicals or even as a consequence of climate
change and can further be a primary driver in causing
the outbreaks. However, such predictions are difficult
due to their complexity and variability. In general, the
projected change in climate coupled with poor tree
vigour as a consequence of increasing moisture
deficit conditions, will promote pest and pathogen

activity due to low moisture availability following
prolonged drought, higher temperature and reduced
mor ta lity in winter s. However, the complex
inter a ctions a mong hosts, pa thogens a nd
environmental conditions make scientific prediction
difficult. A warmer and dry climate may change some
pathogens and pests and decline in others.

Emergence of stem borers as a serious pest is a
consequence of progressive exposure of intensively
managed orchards to drought. Progressive foliage loss
in mango due to complex insect damage may also be
a consequence of this. However, short periods of hot,
dry weather put severe stress on weak or injured trees
and may cause them to die. Death most frequently
occurs in the early summer, during or just following
the first heat wave. A heat wave puts a severe strain
on a weakened tree. Weak trees frequently leaf out
in the spring, bloom profusely, and set a heavy crop
of fruit but fail to retain the crop load. Although in
mango the trees leaf out, the leaves usually are
smaller than normal, are pale-green to yellowish
green in colourand are severely affected by foliage
pests and or diseases even before the leaves turn
green from the initial copper colour.

Consequences are seen in recent years of loss of
coconut trees, arecanut trees, mango trees and other
perennial trees in some of the groundwater over
exploited a r ea s like Chitr a durga , Tumkur,
Chikkaballapur, Bangalore, Hassan, Anantapur,
Madanapalli, Solapur, Theni, Virudhunagar and other
districts and Arabica coffee in Coorg and Chikmagalur
distr icts of Ka r na ta ka . Over ma tur e tr ees
progressively lose their resilience to climatic stress,
so that a single climatic event can destroy a whole
area of those species. For example, over aged
coconuts and areca nuts in Southern Karnataka died
few years back.

Water and land resources degradation
The United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED, 1992) defined desertification
as “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-
humid areas resulting from various factors, including
clima tic va r ia tions a nd huma n a ctivities”.
Desertification is not an advance of existing deserts
but is rather the effect of localized degradation of the
land. It r a pidly follows deforesta tion and soil
exhaustion. Exposed to the sun, the wind and the
rains, exhausted soils lose their organic matter and

J. Hortl. Sci.
Vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020

their structure while nutrients are leached away. Fine
elements are blown into dust storms and sand grains
become mobile. Overexploitation of forest, tree, bush,
grazing land and unsustainable cropping systems by
overexploitationas of soil resources and ground water
has been increasing desertification. Recent report of
ICRISAT under NICRA project has shown that in the
past 50 years there has been a shift from dry sub-
humid climate of some region to semiarid climate and
tr ends in semia r id r egions becoming a r id
regions(NICRA, 2014). Fruit trees are occupying
larger areas in such locations in dry sub-humid and
semi-arid regions under irrigation from tube wells
which are over drawn leading to a steep gradient of
dry profile down from surface soil. A poor monsoon
spread over short period, too low number of rainy
days, early withdrawal of monsoon coupled with
groundwater over draft predisposes fruit trees to
wither.

Natural resources, particularly surface and ground
water, are important for sustainable development and
achieving higher economic growth. Efficient and
scientific utilization of these resources ensures the
ecological balance of an ecosystem. The contribution
of natural resources to local economy is outside the
market framework, which are both its strength as well
as weakness. Strength in the sense of social justice,
that it supports rural families. Weakness lies in
unsustainable exploitation of these resources, which
would result in the tragedy of these resources.
Further, unsustainable exploitation leads to scarcity
of resources that would then be beyond the reach of
the poor.

Consequences of groundwater
overexploitation
Groundwater depletion is by far the most widely
deba ted issue in the r esour ce economics
literature.Groundwater depletion problems are related
to the question of resource management and the
coalition of powerful property owners protecting their
interests, under a capitalist society. Overexploitation
of ground water and its social consequences are the
result of certain processes of development in irrigated
agriculture that occurs at the cost of depletion of
aquifers and sustainable farming systems (Raghupathi
and Ganeshamurthy, 2013). The state intervened
initially through agrarian reforms, and later by
providing credit facilities and supporting marginalized

groups to have irrigation facilities by implementing
Million Well Schemes, Ganga KalyanYojana and
politically influenced free power supply etc. All these
led to rise in groundwater structures, shifting cropping
pattern towards water intensive crops as well as
resource abuse by overexploitation of the aquifer. The
distinctive impact of irrigation, in general, and
groundwater irrigation, in particular, on farming begins
to emerge more clearly and recognizably where
irrigation permits extension of cultivation to additional
seasons (Rao, 1978). This allows farmers to benefit
from surplus production which otherwise would not
have been possible. As a result, groundwater became
a chief source of irrigation primarily in dry sub-humid,
semi-arid and arid areas and at the same time several
problems like those mentioned above emerge due to
heavy pumping.

Counter argument
Trees consume water. The more the aerial system of
trees is developed, the more water they transpire. The
desirability of tree planting in arid lands is debated
because trees may consume more water than they
provide to the water cycle. Some countries, such as
South Africa, have imposed a tax on the water
consumed by forests. In certain circumstances where
trees consume all the rainwater, it may be judged
better to harvest this water through a bare watershed,
store it in a reservoir and use it to irrigate high-value
agricultural crops. For example, in Yatir, Israel, where
average precipitation is only 270 mm per year, more
tha n 3000 ha of rainfed Pinus halepensis were
planted in the ea rly 1960s under a lar ge-sca le
afforestation project. Although the forest provides
carbon sequestration benefits and contributes to the
livelihoods of nearby communities (particularly through
fuel wood and non-wood forest products such as
resins, fodder and medicinal and aromatic plants), it
uses all the precipitation water. Furthermore, the forest
has altered the biodiversity of the region, as new
predation dynamics threaten endemic species. Rueff
and Schwartz (2007) reported that the water that the
watershed would have provided if it had not been
afforested would have alleviated poverty better if it
had been used for agriculture. They suggested that
afforestation on a smaller scale, such as on farmers’
plots, may yield similar benefits with fewer drawbacks,
as combining tree planting and agriculture is less
disturbing to the environment, improves agricultural
yields, conserves water and soils and provides fuel
wood for farmers.

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Peak water and Future threat
Groundwater contributes 42%, 36% and 27% of water
used for irrigation, households and manufacturing,
respectively. In regions with extensive surface water
irrigation, such as Indo-Gangetic plain, net abstractions
from groundwater are negative, i.e. groundwater is
recharged by irrigation. The opposite is true for areas
dominated by ground water irrigation such as southern
plateau regions covering Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh
and Tamil Nadu where net abstraction of surface
water is negative because return flow of withdrawn
gr oundwa ter r echa r ges the sur fa ce wa ter
compartments first and then excess flow downwards
(Raghupathi and Ganeshamurthy, 2013).

The Nationa l Academy of Agricultural Science
(NAAS) in its meeting on phosphorus in 2013
discussed about “Peak phosphorus” going to threaten
future food security. But the real threat is the “Peak
wa ter”. We may produce some food with low
phosphorus supply, but we cannot produce food
without water. Human beings on an average require
four litres of water per day. But the water required
for producing each day food per person is around
2,000 litters. This is 500 times as much compared to
direct consumption of water by man. We must now
understand that getting enough water to drink is
relatively easy, but finding enough to produce the
ever-growing quantities of food, fruits, vegetables,
fodder and other requirements is a matter of serious
concern. For example, it is a common scene seeing
water tankers carrying water from tube wells from the
farm land heading towards cities as a consequence
of unplanned city expansions like those seen in
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune. There is
concer n that the sta te of pea k water is being
approached in many areas. Some areas are suffering
from peak renewable water, where entire renewable
flows are being consumed for human use, peak non-
renewable water, where groundwater aquifers are
being over pumped (or contaminated) faster than
nature recharges them and peak ecological water,
where ecological and environmental constraints are
overwhelming the economic benefits provided by
water use (Gleick and Palaniappan, 2010, 2011) if
present trends continue.

In a short span of two to three decades the extraction
of water began to exceed the recharge of aquifers
from precipitation, and water tables began to fall. And

then wells begin to go dry. For example, in the district
of Chikkaballapur in Karnataka, Madanapalli in
Andhra Pradesh, the farmers draw water worth 1800-
2000 mm rainfall for rowing tomato after tomato,
whereas the average precipitation is only 750-800
mm. In effect, over pumping creates a water-based
food bubble, one that will burst when the aquifer is
depleted and the rate of pumping is necessarily
reduced to the rate of recharge. Definitely regions
such a s this ha ve cr ossed the pea k non-
renewable water.
A World Bank study estimates that 15% of India’s
food supply is produced by mining groundwater.
Stated otherwise, 175 million Indians are now fed
with grains produced with the unsustainable use of
water. As early as 2004, Fred Pearce reported in New
Scientist that “half of India’s traditional hand-dug
wells and millions of shallower tube wells have
already dried up, bringing a spate of suicides among
those who rely on them. Electricity blackouts are
reaching epidemic proportions in government where
half of the electricity is used to pump water from
depths of a kilo meter and above.”
The excessive “mining” of our aquifers is causing
environmental degradation on a potentially enormous
scale (Raghupathi and Ganeshamurthy, 2013). As a
country, we have dramatically increased our reliance
on groundwater. This increase has dried up rivers and
lakes, because there is a hydrologic connection
between groundwater and surface water. Yet the legal
rules governing water use usually ignore this link.
This disconnection between law and science is a
major cause of the problem. So too is our refusal to
recognize the unsustainability of our water use.
Significant reformsare necessary if we are to save our
trees, prevent further degradation of our rivers,
streams, lakes, wetlands, and estuaries. A final
consequence of ground water pumping is its impact
on surface water, including lakes, ponds, rivers,
creeks, streams, springs, wetlands, and estuaries.
T hese consequences r a nge fr om minima l to
catastrophic. An example of the latter is the Arkavati
and Vrishabha vatirivers and a chain of 65 lakes in
Bengaluru. Two lakes viz., Hessaraghatta lake and
Tippagodanahalli lake provided sufficient good
qua lity dr inking wa ter to metr opolita n city
“Bengaluru”. It is more than two decades these very
important water bodies have dried-up. Once a
verdant riparian system with a lush canopy provided

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Groundwater decline and perennial horticultural crops

by several tree species and big gardens, groundwater
pumping has lowered the water table, drained the
rivers and lakes of their flow, devastated vegetation
and driven away the local birds and wildlife. The
rivers and lakes have become an oxymoron–a dry
river and lake-a pathetic desiccated sandbox. Other
lake cities, Bhopal and Udaipur are in the verge of
reaching the state of Bengaluru in near future if
corrective measures are not taken.

How do water bodies go dry?
Groundwater and surface water are not separate
categories of water. The designations groundwater
and surface water merely describe the physical
location of the water in the hydrologic cycle. Indeed,
groundwater and surface water form a continuum.
Virtually all groundwater was once stream flow that
seeped into the ground. The converse is also true but
not obvious. Groundwater pumping essentially
interrupts the water cycle by removing water, directly
or indirectly, that would otherwise discharge from
aquifers to rivers, streams, and other surface water
bodies.

As groundwater pumping lowers the water table, the
direction of the flow of rivers streams and lakes
changes. Once the water table is below the elevation
of the rivers, streams and lakes, water flows from the
water bodies towa rd the aquifer. T his is wha t
groundwater pumping did in areas where perennial
fruit and nut trees are drying. Groundwater pumping
literally sucked water from the rivers, streams and
la kes a nd pr oduced hor r ible envir onmenta l
consequences. First, of course, the flow in the rivers
and streams gets reduced and lakes dried and water-
dependent species like areca nut, coconuts and
mangos suffered heavily and areca nut and coconut
trees withered and mango trees are in the queue.

In considering other examples of environmental
problems caused by groundwater pumping, the first
thing to note is that the impact of groundwater
pumping on the environment is not confined to any
given region. Like Karnataka and other southern
states, the central Indian states also have similar
problems. But the peak has reached in south and may
take little more time for the other regions. In the
North and Indo-Gangetic plain, the problem is similar
but for the well supplied water from Himalayan river
systems.

We use groundwater to grow all kinds of things, even
when there is no need to do so. Until rather recently,
many of our farms were “dryland” farmed. However,
as the demand increased farmers shifted from dryland
to irrigation farming. In places where only highly
drought resistant crops like ragi and horse grams were
grown, farmers shifted to highly water dependent
crops like tomato, watermelons etc. with almost three-
fold increase in cropping intensities, all through
exploitation of ground water. We require 200 to 225
litres of water to produce one kilogram of tomato. We
export this tomato to other countries at the rate of
approximately Rs. 20/- per kg. Are we not foolish to
do this and farmers suffering many a times from
tomato glut? Such over pumping of water irrigates the
surface layers of soil in annual crops like tomato and
other vegetables. But the perennial crops in the region,
particularly in areas like Srinivasapura in Kolar district
in Karnataka and Nuzvid area in Andhra Pradesh
under mango and Tumkur and Hassan districts in
coconut and areca nut undergo severe stress due to
continued profile drying.

Another pitiable example is our newfound fascination
with bottled water. It is a scene even plaguing the
rural areas. The domestic bottled water market
(including organised and unorganised players) is
estimated at Rs 8,000 crore. The bottled water market
which has been growing at a CAGR of 19%, is
expected to continue its growth momentum and grow
over four -folds to Rs 36, 000 cr or e by 2020
(Mukherjee, 2012). The industry is heavily dependent
on ground water (onelitre bottled water = 1.8 litre of
ground water) has become a competitor with the
irrigation system.

The urgent need for reforms
The impact of groundwater pumping on agriculture in
general and perennial horticulture in particular, is an
example of what biologist Garrett Harden called “the
tragedy of the commons.” The legal rules governing
groundwater use is not strong and the law makers are
yet to understand the ground reality. We have failed
to eliminate the gap between law and science. In lieu
of legal reform, we have shown limitless ingenuity in
devising technological fixes for water supply problems.
These so-called solutions have altered the hydrologic
cycle in order to sustain existing usage. As our water
use spirals upward, we must begin to rethink the
economic structure by which we value our water

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Ganeshamurthy et al.

resources. At the same time, we must act to protect
our rivers, springs, lakes, estuaries and wetlands from
groundwater pumping. There is considerable urgency.
Because groundwater moves so slowly, it may take
years or decades of groundwater pumping before the
effect on the environment is apparent. The hidden
tragedy is that groundwater pumping which has
a lr ea dy occur r ed will ca use ir r emedia ble
environmental damage.

To control the impact of groundwater pumping on the
environment, we must combine a command-and-
control model of government rules and regulations
with the market forces of transferable rights and price
incentives. Any meaningful reform must do two
things: protect the rights of existing users by creating
quantified water rights that are transferable and
therefore valuable; and break free of the relentless
cycle of increasing use by placing restrictions on
individual freedom to pump groundwater. The law
makers must take cognizance of the following issues
to save the environment, orchards, water bodies and
our future generations.

 Government rules and regula tions deserve a
prominent place in our reform efforts as we
a ttempt to pr otect the envir onment. T he
government should undertake a number of very
specific reforms.

 Even though water is a scarce commodity, most
of us have not yet fa ced the condition tha t
economists call scarcity, which occurs when people
alter their consumption patterns in response to
price increases. Our habits of water use will not
change until the cost of water rises sufficiently to
force an alteration. Therefore, we must increase
water rates so that all users pay the replacement
value of the water, which includes environmental
impact cost. Economists agree that significant price
increases would create incentives for all users to
conserve. All farmers, businesses, or industrial and
other users could then decide which uses of water
to continue and which to curtail. Rate increases
would encourage the elimination of marginal
economic activities and the movement of water
toward more essential and productive uses.

 The government should carefully craft water
conservation standards. However, the experience
of some western government with conservation
sta nda r ds sends a mixed messa ge. If the

government attempt to impose elaborate and
detailed conservation standards, the regulated
groups will fight tooth and nail over every sentence
in the proposed regulation. This process can
consume enormous amounts of time, energy, and
money. The lesson for government is that it is
better to embrace simple conservation standards
that are easy to administer and implement. They
are likely to have the most practical effect in terms
of actually saving water and will avoid prolonged
political struggle.

 The government should establish minimum stream
flows and protect those flows from pumping of
hydr ologica lly connected gr oundwater. T he
legislature should authorize the State Departments
of Environment and forestry, agriculture and
horticulture to establish minimum water levels for
streams and lakes to protect water resources. The
minimum levels become appropriations within the
prior appropriation system and offer protection
against subsequent groundwater pumping.

 The government should prohibit the drilling of new
wells in areas that are hydrologically connected to
surface flows. Generally speaking, the farther a
well is from a watercourse, the less significant the
impact of groundwater pumping from that well will
be. Government has two options to solve this
problem: They can make the ban on wells near
watercourses turn on a hydrologic analysis of the
particular region, or ban on drilling wells within, for
example, a mile of the river.

 Both the state governments and Panchayats should
commit resources to purchasing and retiring
groundwater rights to protect critical catchments,
wa ter sheds a nd ha bita ts. For exa mple, the
catchment a rea of cr itical water bodies like
Ba da ta la b of Bhopa l or Hessa ra ghatta a nd
Tippagodanahalli lakes in Bengaluru, Sukna lake in
Chandigarh, Pichola, Fatehsagar, Jaisamand and
Ra jsa ma nd la kes of Uda ipur, Husa in a nd
Himayathsagar in Hyderabad.

 Government should foster a market in water rights
by allowing the easy transferability of rights from
existing users to newcomers. Enormous quantities
of groundwater are used for extremely low-value
economic activities. State law must facilitate the
movement of water from these uses to higher-
value ones by establishing a water rights market
as the mechanism for accomplishing this shift.

J. Hortl. Sci.
Vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020

Groundwater decline and perennial horticultural crops

 The government should impose an extraction tax
on water pumped from any well within a certain
distance of a river, spring, or lake. This tax would
have two benefits: It would encourage existing
pumpers to conserve water, and it would create
an incentive for new pumpers to locate wells
farther away from watercourses.

 The government should not allow land developers
to drill wells in an aquifer already under stress and
land developers should not be allowed to source
water from agricultural areas.

 The government, especially through panchayats,
should use financial incentives as a significant part
of water policy. Quite simply, we are not paying
the true cost of water. When homeowners or
businesses receive a monthly water bill from the
utility, that bill normally includes only the extraction
costs of drilling the wells, the energy costs of
pumping the water, the infrastructure costs of a
distr ibution a nd stor a ge system, a nd the
administrative costs of the water department or
company. Water rates, with rare exceptions, do not
include a commodity charge for the water itself.
The water is free.

 Unplanned urbanization has forced cities to depend
on rural areas for sourcing water supplies. The
flow of water from rural tube wells to urban areas
for meeting domestic a nd industr ia l wa ter
requirements of cities must be stopped

 Several crops which need huge quantity of water
are grown for export like sugarcane, gherkins,

tomatoes, capsicum, scented rice etc. These crops
are exporting water more than the produce. The
actual cost of water is not calculated while working
out the economics. Growing crops for export
purpose using groundwater is not justified when
local populations are going to suffer from severe
shor tage of wa ter. Such a ctivities must be
restricted.

 The government certainly has powers to impose
location specific regulations on groundwater
pumpers, yet there are two good reasons why it
should not do so. First, it would provoke a bruising
political battle. The political capital expended to win
that fight could be better spent elsewhere. Second,
the impa ct of groundwa ter pumping on the
envir onment is nua nced a nd site-specific,
depending enormously on the particular hydrologic
characteristics of an aquifer. Imposing a uniform
template on the nation is likely to exclude some
pumping that should be regulated and to include
some pumping that poses no serious risk of harm.

 The impact of gr oundwater pumping on the
environment is enormous. And it is getting worse.
As the drought that frequently grips the country,
farmers, cities and individual homeowners are
scrambling in search of additional water supplies.
They have often focused on groundwater; indeed,
well-drilling businesses around the country are
booming. The drought has prompted the media to
pay remarkable a ttention to water issues. A
massive campaign to save water is the need of the
hour.

J. Hortl. Sci.
Vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020

Ganeshamurthy et al.

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(Received on 19.11.2019 and accepted on 17.06.2020)

02 Ganeshamurthy Groundwater.pdf