Revision summary
Depletion requires storage that recharges, not only more pumps. Tanks, watersheds, and managed aquifer recharge are the distributed store. Micro-irrigation, canal efficiency, and working water-user associations cut waste. Cropping and electricity reform decide whether drip subsidies are real savings. PMKSY, Atal Bhujal, MGNREGA, and Jal Shakti Abhiyan are the named instruments.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Indian irrigation grew by capturing monsoon in canals and then by mining aquifers with pumps. Under a depleting scenario — falling water tables, silted tanks, climate-erratic rain — the task is to store more where it recharges, move water with less loss, and apply it as a crop need, not as a free flood. Judicious use is pricing, cropping, and engineering together.
Body
Store more, and store in the right place
- Revive tanks, ponds, and traditional systems (ahar-pyne, johads, temple tanks) through MGNREGA and Jal Shakti Abhiyan-type drives, with silt as a farm input, not a dump.
- Watershed and check-dam work on a ridge-to-valley plan so storage is a chain, not a single celebrity reservoir.
- Underground storage: managed aquifer recharge, percolation tanks, and Atal Bhujal Yojana community water-budgets in stressed blocks.
- Reservoir operation: carry-over storage, desiltation where economic, and conjunctive use so canals and wells are one system.
- Urban rainwater harvesting and treated-wastewater reuse for industry and horticulture, to take pressure off irrigation freshwater.
Irrigation hardware that wastes less
- Canal lining and piped distribution where seepage is loss, not recharge (lining is not always wise over a depleted aquifer that needs leakage).
- Micro-irrigation: drip and sprinkler under PMKSY–Per Drop More Crop, with actual electricity and agronomy, not only a subsidy for pipes that lie unused.
- On-farm storage (farm ponds) for horticulture, with safeguards against illegal groundwater fill.
- Pressurised irrigation from canals (as in some Gujarat and Maharashtrian commands) to cut field-to-field flooding.
- Repair of last-mile outlets and participatory irrigation (PIM / WUAs) so the tail-ender actually receives a turn.
Judicious use under depletion
- Cropping pattern: shift thirsty paddy and sugarcane off over-exploited blocks; millets, pulses, and oilseeds with procurement that is real.
- Power and water pricing: flat-free electricity is a pump subsidy to mine water. Solar pumps (PM-KUSUM) need feed-in / grid options so farmers sell power instead of pumping 24 hours.
- Soil moisture and scheduling: agro-met, sensors for large commands, and Soil Health Cards so irrigation is not a substitute for agronomy.
- Legal and institutional: groundwater acts that are enforced, community metering, and CGWB assessment as a binding planning input, not a PDF.
- Inter-linking and large dams are not the first answer in a depleting local aquifer; they move a problem unless command-area efficiency is already high.
What not to do
- More tube-wells as ‘irrigation development’ in dark zones.
- Storage that evaporates in shallow open pits in arid heat without a recharge purpose.
- Ignoring command-area development after a dam is built — India’s old sin.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD D[Depleting water] --> S[Tanks recharge aquifers] D --> I[Drip lined canals PIM] D --> C[Crop and power reform] S --> J[Judicious use] I[I] --> J[J] C[C] --> J[J]
Conclusion
Under depletion, store in tanks, watersheds, and aquifers; irrigate through micro-systems and honest canal tails; and use less by changing crops and pump incentives. PMKSY, Atal Bhujal, MGNREGA water works, and Jal Shakti campaigns are the toolkit. A new dam without demand management is not judicious use.
Quick related
Students also ask
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How can biotechnology help to improve the living standards of farmers?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2019 · Q16). View answer →
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Is lining every canal the answer?
Only where seepage is waste. In some commands seepage recharges wells. Site hydrology first.
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Can India drip-irrigate all paddy?
Paddy’s biology and mill economics limit that. The deeper fix in dark zones is less paddy, not a magical emitter on every field.
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