NEW DELHI: Total annual groundwater recharge in the country marginally increased in 2025 compared to last year and so did the water availability for different uses, but nearly one-fourth of the assessment units collectively continued to be in semi-critical, critical and over-exploited categories due to notable decline in recharge in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Kerala, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.The findings are part of the Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India, 2025 report, released by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) this week. It shows that the annual recharge increased from 446.9 billion cubic metre (BCM) in 2024 to 448.52 BCM in 2025. However, the annual recharge this year is still less than the 2023 level of 449.08 BCM.

CGWB assessed a total of 6,762 units (blocks/mandals/talukas) in 2025. It found that the over-exploited administrative units are mostly concentrated in parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The overexploitation occurred due to different reasons, including “indiscriminate withdrawals” of groundwater and climatic factors.Overall, 730 units (10.8%) in the country were categorised as over-exploited in 2025, indicating groundwater extraction exceeding the annual groundwater recharge. The report shows that the percentage of over-exploited, critical and semi-critical units exceeded 25% of the total units in nine states/UTs: Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.“In some areas of the country, good continuous rainfall and management practices like groundwater augmentation and conservation measures taken up under central and state govt initiatives have resulted in improvement in groundwater situation,” said the report.The states that reported significant increase in groundwater recharge this year include Bihar, Chhattisgarh, MP, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and UP.Rainfall is the main source of groundwater recharge in the country. It contributes to nearly 60% of the total annual groundwater recharge. “So, the increase in water recharge can be attributed to better monsoon rainfall this year than 2024. Good rainfall means less extraction of groundwater for farming operations,” said an official.