UPSC Mains 2025 GS3 Q13: model answer
Examine the factors responsible for depleting groundwater in India. What are the steps taken by the government to mitigate such depletion of groundwater ?
What the question wants
Causes of groundwater depletion and government responses.
How to structure it
Intro: India's dependence. Body: (1) Factors (free or flat-rate power, cropping pattern, weak law); (2) Government steps; (3) Gaps. Conclusion: Groundwater is a common resource used as private property.
- 1(1) Factors (free or flat-rate power, cropping pattern, weak law)
- 2(2) Government steps
- 3(3) Gaps
Model answer
India is the world's largest user of groundwater, drawing roughly a quarter of the global total. Groundwater supplies most rural drinking water and over 60% of irrigation. The Central Ground Water Board's assessments show over-exploited blocks concentrated in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and parts of the south.
Factors
- Free or flat-rate power for farm pumps encourages unlimited pumping.
- Cropping pattern: paddy and sugarcane in dry regions, supported by MSP and procurement.
- Weak law: groundwater goes with land ownership (Easements Act, 1882), so anyone can drill.
- Urbanisation: paved surfaces cut recharge; cities like Bengaluru and Chennai depend on borewells.
- Loss of traditional storage: tanks, step-wells and wetlands encroached.
- Climate: erratic monsoon and hard-rock aquifers in peninsular India store little.
Government steps
- Atal Bhujal Yojana (2019): community-led management in seven States.
- Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain; Mission Amrit Sarovar ponds.
- National Aquifer Mapping (NAQUIM) and the Model Groundwater Bill.
- CGWA guidelines (2020) requiring no-objection certificates for industrial use.
- PMKSY 'Per Drop More Crop' for micro-irrigation; PM-KUSUM solar pumps with feeder separation.
- Punjab's Preservation of Subsoil Water Act (2009) delaying paddy transplanting.
- Crop diversification incentives in Haryana (Mera Pani Meri Virasat).
Gaps: power subsidies untouched, weak enforcement, MSP bias towards water-intensive crops.
Groundwater is a common resource used as private property. Pricing power sensibly, changing crops and community regulation together can reverse the decline.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
over-exploited blocks free power Easements Act Atal Bhujal NAQUIM Amrit Sarovar PM-KUSUM
Where most answers lose marks
- Not linking depletion to power and crop policy.
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17 Oct 2026Learn the concept
Question text as printed in the official UPSC question paper: https://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/GENERAL-STUDIES-PAPER-III-QP-CSM-25-010925.pdf The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.