Karnataka stands fourth in deep borewells

Ground water situation is alarming in Karnataka as state is fourth highest in the country having deep borewell with 150 meters depth.

As per the latest minor irrigation census carried out by the Union Water Resources Ministry, in Karnataka total 1,18,763 borewells existed with more than 70 meters deep and in which 40,186 were 150 meters depth.

Rajasthan stood top in the country 1,06,002 deep borewells having 150 meters followed by Andhra Pradesh (91, 652) and Tamil Nadu (61,984 with 150 meters deep bore wells).

In borewell ( also called tube well), pipe is bored underground. As per the definition, the report said, deep tube wells are more than 70 meters deep.

In Karnataka, deep borewells located in parched regions mostly in Kolar, Chamarajnagar, Chitradurga, Bengaluru Rural, Tumkur, Davangere, Haveri, Gadag, Koppal and Raichur districts.

In the state total 2,85,085 hectares being irrigated from water removed from borewell and in which 1,32,524 hectares in kharif season while 50,561 hectares in rabi and 8,554 hectares growing perennial crops, says the survey carried out with 2013-14 as reference year and released now.

Maximum, around 98% deep borewells are owned by individual farmers in the state, less than 10% owned by a group of farmers or co-operative societies in the state. The marginal farmers having less than one hectare land owned maximum borewells.

"More deep borewells implies declining dependency of farmers on surface water schemes and increasing dependency on ground water schemes for meeting their minor irrigation needs. So, in order to decrease the dependency of farmers on ground water and to reduce the further depletion of ground water, surface water sources need to be restored in order to continue to derive irrigation benefits from them", said the report.

As per the report, in India, majority of the total deep tube wells, which irrigate 12.68 million hectares of land are located in states like Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and are dominantly owned by farmers.