Six of nine erstwhile undivided districts of Telangana are with more than one lakh minor irrigation schemes and Karimnagar topped the chart with the highest number of schemes in the country, the 5th Census of Minor Irrigation by the Ministry of Water Resources revealed.
The MIC, with 2013-14 as the reference year, conducted in 33 States studied five broad aspects: Irrigation potential created and utilised, ownership and source of finance, device and energy source, water distribution devices and efficiency, reasons and constraints for utilisation.
The sexennial survey reported that Uttar Pradesh, among all States had the largest number of MI schemes in the country with 38 lakh structures, an 18% overall contribution, while Karimnagar (2,56,356) topped the list of districts ‘with more than 1 lakh MI schemes’, closely followed by Solapur district of Maharashtra.
Nalgonda, Warangal, Mahbubnagar, Medak and Nizamabad are the other five districts from Telangana in the top 15 – each with nearly 10% of the structures reported not in use.
Minor irrigation, as defined by the Ministry is both, flow and lift type ground water (dug-well, dug-cum-bore, tube wells) and surface water schemes (tanks and check dams) that have an individual cultivable command area up to 2,000 hectares.
The census observed that ground water still accounted a lion share of about 95% of minor irrigation schemes in the country, and since the past record of the survey there has been a 3.37% increase in the overall structures.
The report lists reasons from States of Kerala, Odisha, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir and others – for a decline in the reduction of schemes ranging from urbanisation of rural areas, drying up of groundwater sources, decline in agriculture area and populations withdrawing from agriculture.
However, it does not explain reasons from 11 States – Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu that showed an increasing trend and together make up 90% of the total schemes.
The MIC findings come as a timely help for Telangana, point groundwater scientists, as the State is currently implementing the free, 24-hour power supply to farm sector – which would adversely interfere with groundwater recharge, if unchecked.
