About 2,424,540 water bodies have been enumerated in the country by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, out of which 97.1 per cent are in rural areas and only 2.9 per cent are in urban areas. The top five states in terms of a number of water bodies are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam — which constitute around 63 per cent of the total water bodies in the country.
By Andalib Akhter
Union Ministry of Jal Shakti has conducted the first-ever census of water bodies across the nation. The census provides a comprehensive inventory of India’s water resources, including natural and man-made water bodies like ponds and lakes.
In the census, over 24.24 lakh water bodies have been enumerated in the country out of which more than 23 lakh water bodies are in rural areas and nearly 69,000 are in urban areas. The top five States in terms of number of water bodies are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam which constitute around 63 per cent of the total water bodies in the country.
The Census also highlighted disparities between rural and urban areas and varying levels of encroachment and revealed crucial insights into the country’s water resources.
The top five States in terms of the number of water bodies in urban areas are West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura, whereas in rural areas, top five States are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam.
West Bengal has highest number of ponds and reservoirs, whereas Andhra Pradesh has highest number of tanks, Tamil Nadu has highest number of lakes and Maharashtra is the leading state for water conservation scheme.
About 59.5% of water bodies are ponds, followed by tanks (15.7%), reservoirs (12.1%), Water conservation schemes/percolation tanks/check dams (9.3%), lakes (0.9%) and others (2.5%), according to Jal Shakti ministry’s census on water bodies report.
Around 55.2% of water bodies are owned by private entities, whereas 44.8% of water bodies are in the domain of public ownership.
Aiming at providing a comprehensive inventory of India’s water resources, including natural and man-made water bodies such as ponds, tanks, lakes, and more, and collecting data on the encroachment of water bodies, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has conducted the first-ever census of water bodies across the nation.
78% water bodies are man-made water bodies whereas 22% are natural water bodies. 1.6% (38,496) water bodies out of all the enumerated water bodies are reported to be encroached out of which 95.4% are in rural areas and remaining 4.6% in urban areas.
The Census also highlighted disparities between rural and urban areas and varying levels of encroachment and revealed crucial insights into the country’s water resources.
The census has been launched under the centrally sponsored scheme, the ‘irrigation census’ in convergence with the 6th Minor Irrigation Census to have a comprehensive national database of all water bodies. The information on type, condition, status of encroachments, use, storage capacity, status of filling up of storage of water bodies was collected. It covered all the water bodies located in rural as well as urban areas that are in-use or not in-use.
The census also considered all types of uses of water bodies like irrigation, industry, pisciculture, domestic drinking, recreation, religious, ground water recharge etc.
The IEC division of Jal Shakti ministry is ensuring dissemination of the Census report especially for planners, research scholars, agricultural and water scientists, policy makers, administrators, and all other stakeholders across the country.
