area of water scarcity measures taken by the government to improve this level of underground water in telangana
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According to the data released by the Food and Agricultural Organisation’s AQUASTAT in 2010, at 250 billion m³ per year, India is one of the countries that uses groundwater the most. As high as 80 percent of its water is used for irrigation of which 65 percent is groundwater.
This paper Bi-decadal groundwater level trends in a semi-arid south Indian region: Declines, causes and management published in the Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies says that the large-scale groundwater withdrawal is due to the increase in number of irrigation wells with diesel or electric pumps in the country. There has been a 130-fold rise in irrigation wells--from 0.15 million in 1960 to nearly 20 million by 2000. This over-extraction of groundwater is leading to extreme groundwater depletion and many other related environmental problems in many parts of the country.
Although states like Punjab, Haryana and Telangana have high levels of groundwater use, the aquifers in these regions are different. The deep alluvial aquifers found in Punjab and Haryana have more water-holding capacity than those in Telangana. So while the declining water table may not affect the water availability in Punjab, at least not in the short run, the situation is different in Telangana due to the shallow nature of the aquifers. One of the reasons for the groundwater depletion in Punjab and Telangana is speculated to be the free electricity provided to the farmers. No studies, however, have been done to verify this.