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Economic implications of groundwater exploitation in hard rock areas of southern peninsular India

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Abstract

The present paper analyses the consequences of groundwater exploitation by using field-level data collected from two distinct well irrigated areas of Karnataka. The study results show that the consequences arising out of groundwater overexploitation are severe in high well interference area compared to low well interference area. The burden of well failure is more or less equally shared by all categories of farmers but small farmers are the worst victims of resource scarcity. As a result, overexploitation of groundwater has different impacts on different categories of farmers in terms of access to groundwater, cost and returns to groundwater irrigation and its negative externality cost. The study suggests maintaining inter-well distance to prevent resource mining and calls for supply and demand side interventions. The institutional reform is necessary to restore surface water bodies to facilitate aquifer recharge.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Profs. KV Raju, MG. Chandrakanth and RS Deshpande for their useful suggestions on the earlier versions of this paper. The author also grateful to two anonymous referees of this journal for their constructive comments. However, the usual disclaimers apply.

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  1. Resilient Dryland Systems, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, 502324, Andhra Pradesh, India

    K. H. Anantha

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Anantha, K.H. Economic implications of groundwater exploitation in hard rock areas of southern peninsular India. Environ Dev Sustain 15, 587–606 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-012-9394-0

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