Consider the following statements:1. 36% of India’s districts ar...
Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has been constituted under Section 3 (3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to regulate and control development and management of ground water resources in the country. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
India's irrigation is mostly groundwater well based. At 39 million hectares (67% of its total irrigation), India has the world's largest groundwater well equipped irrigation system (China with 19 mha is second, USA with 17 mha is third). Hence, statement 3 is correct.
According to National Compilation of Groundwater Resource of India 2017, the average stage of ground water extraction for the country as a whole works out to be about 63 %. The extraction of ground water for various uses in different parts of the country is not uniform.
Out of the total 6881 assessment units (Blocks/ Mandals/ Talukas/Firkas) in the country, 1186 units in various States (17%) have been categorized as ‘Over-Exploited’ indicating ground water extraction exceeding the annually replenishable ground water recharge. In these areas the percentage of ground water extraction is more than 100 percent.
In addition, 313 units (5%) are ‘Critical’, where the stage of ground water extraction is between 90-100 %. There are 972 semi-critical units (14%), where the stage of ground water extraction is between 70% and 90% and 4310 assessment units (63%) have been categorized as ‘Safe‘, where the stage of Ground water extraction is less than 70 %. Apart from this, there are 100 assessment units (1%), which have been categorized, as ‘Saline’ as major part of the ground water in phreatic aquifers is brackish or saline.
In January 2020, NGT had ordered the Centre to put on hold its new norms on groundwater use. About 20,000 applications are pending before the CGWA. Around 800,000 companies fall in overexploited, critical and semi-critical blocks, representing 36% of 6,881 groundwater assessment units. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
Therefore, the correct answer is (b).