Explained: India's ground-water crisis has an electricity problem

India usually discussions concerning its groundwater crisis in terms of water shortages: uneven rainfall, falling water levels and climate change.

Key points

• 2024 (groundwater): Annual groundwater extraction is 245.64 bcm, with agriculture accounting for 87% (213.29 bcm); overall extraction stage is 60.47%.
• Late 1980s-1990 (Tamil Nadu): Tamil Nadu moves to universal free electricity for all agricultural connections by 1990.
• The National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development estimated that irrigation accounted for 83.3% of India's total water employ in 1997-98.
• The Central Electricity Authority's 2023 review recorded free agricultural electricity in states and Union territories including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Puducherry, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
• 1960s-early 1970s: Agricultural pump sets are mostly metered and charged by consumption; some states (e.g., Punjab) commence experimenting with flat-rate tariffs as early as 1968.

Significantly, the two are closely linked. For crores of farmers, electricity is the cost of getting groundwater. A pump uses electricity to bring water up for irrigation. But the electricity bill does not always growth when more water is pumped. In some states, farm electricity is free. In others, farmers pay a fixed or heavily subsidised rate.

This creates a basic difficulty: water becomes harder to find, but the cost of pumping it does not necessarily rise. When pumping costs particularly little, using more groundwater can produce economic sense for an individual farmer.

1960s-early 1970s: Agricultural pump sets are mostly metered and charged by consumption; some states (e.g., Punjab) commence experimenting with flat-rate tariffs as early as 1968. 1970s-1980s: As tubewells multiply, plenty of states shift to flat-rate tariffs.

Mid-late 1990s (Punjab): Punjab introduces a free-power subsidy for small farmers around 1996-97, then rapidly expands it to all agricultural tubewells regardless of landholding.

Early 2000s (Punjab): Punjab temporarily imposes charges on agricultural connections in the early 2000s, then restores free supply after political pressure.

2003 (Gujarat): Gujarat launches the Jyotigram Yojana, separating agricultural feeders and providing assured, rationed farm power (regarding 8 hours/day) while improving supply for other consumers.

2024 (groundwater): Annual groundwater extraction is 245.64 bcm, with agriculture accounting for 87% (213.29 bcm); overall extraction stage is 60.47%. Of 6, 746 assessment units, 751 are over-exploited, 206 critical, and 711 semi-critical.

2024-25: States spend regarding ₹1.89 lakh crore on power subsidies throughout all sectors. 2025-26 (Punjab): Punjab budgets roughly ₹10, 000 crore for agricultural power subsidy. Why does the national picture hide local stress?

Looking only at national averages can be misleading. The 2024 Central Ground Water Board assessment estimated annual groundwater extraction at 60.47%. But groundwater is a local resource. A national average that looks comfortable can exist alongside serious local challenges.

Notably, the 2025 assessment classified 751 assessment units as over-exploited, 206 as critical and 711 as semi-critical. Agriculture accounted for regarding 87% of annual groundwater extraction. Has groundwater extraction improved since then?

There has been some improvement nationally, but it should not obscure regional stress.

Meanwhile, the latest 2025 assessment puts annual groundwater extraction at 247.22 BCM and the national stage of extraction at 60.63%. The number of over-exploited assessment units has fallen compared with earlier assessments, but Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Tamil Nadu continue to have particularly high concentrations of stressed units. How much water does agriculture employ?

There is no single, annually updated national measure of total agricultural water consumption comparable to the electricity-consumption data.

For context, the National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development estimated that irrigation accounted for 83.3% of India's total water employ in 1997-98. NITI Aayog continues to describe agriculture as the country's dominant water user.

Groundwater provides a more precise measure of one part of the difficulty. In 2024, agriculture alone accounted for 213.29 BCM of groundwater extraction. Is there a national electricity-to-water consumption ratio? Not in any robust official form.

Agricultural electricity employ and groundwater extraction are not the same thing. While groundwater can be pumped using diesel pumps or other sources of energy, electricity applied in farming additionally serves purposes other than pumping groundwater.

Dividing the 2022-23 agricultural electricity consumption of regarding 243, 250 GWh by the 2024 agricultural groundwater extraction of 213.29 BCM would produce roughly 1.14 kWh per cubic metre, but that would not be a valid national electricity-to-groundwater efficiency measure as the two figures refer to different years and electricity consumption is not exclusively attributable to groundwater pumping.

For context, the better measure is therefore the relationship between electricity rates, pumping hours, pump efficiency, groundwater depth and crop water requirements. When did electricity subsidies for agriculture commence?

There is no single date when India introduced an agricultural electricity subsidy.

Meanwhile, the broader policy emerged during the Green Revolution. Agricultural electricity was initially metered, but from the 1970s states increasingly moved towards flat-rate and unmetered tariffs as electric tubewells proliferated and the cost of metering became tough to recover. The policy subsequently evolved into free electricity in a number of states. Which state first introduced completely free agricultural electricity?

In practice, the historical record is more complicated than a single "first state" claim.

Tamil Nadu introduced free electricity for small and marginal farmers in 1984 and extended free supply to all agricultural connections by 1990. Punjab introduced free agricultural electricity in 1997, initially for smaller farmers and then for all agricultural tubewells.

In practice, the significant policy shift was therefore gradual: from metered tariffs, to flat rates, to highly subsidised electricity and finally, in a number of states, zero-price electricity. What is the total agricultural power subsidy in India today?

There is no single, clean official national figure for agricultural electricity subsidies throughout all states.

For context, the often-cited ₹1.89 lakh crore figure for 2024-25 represents states' total power subsidies throughout different consumer categories. It should not be presented as the subsidy given only to farmers.

Notably, the scale is clearer at the state level. Punjab, for instance, has budgeted ₹7, 715 crore for agricultural power subsidy in 2026-27. Its total power subsidy allocation is ₹15, 550 crore, including domestic and industrial consumers. How is electricity related to groundwater?

With metered electricity, farmers pay more when they pump more water. With free or fixed-rate electricity, the cost of pumping for another hour is particularly low or even zero.

This can encourage greater employ of groundwater. Research by Reena Badiani-Magnusson and Katrina Jessoe discovered that lower electricity costs are linked to higher groundwater extraction. They estimated the cost elasticity of groundwater extraction at concerning -0.18. Although the effect varies from place to place, this means that when the cost of electricity falls, groundwater extraction tends to rise. Why do water-intensive crops continue to be grown?

In practice, the difficulty becomes bigger when electricity subsidies are combined with crop and procurement policies.

Paddy is often cited as a major reason for groundwater depletion in India. But farmers do not grow paddy simply since electricity is free. Paddy is attractive since farmers have assured procurement, established markets, machinery, access to inputs and relatively predictable returns. Cheap electricity makes paddy even more attractive by lowering the cost of irrigation.

In practice, a similar pattern can be seen with sugarcane. This demonstrates how different administration policies can work together. Electricity subsidies are only one part of the picture. Procurement policies, crop rates, credit and agricultural infrastructure additionally influence what farmers grow.

It is therefore misleading to say that farmers are simply choosing the "wrong" crop. Farmers generally respond to the returns offered by the existing policy system. But the cost of declining groundwater is borne by farmers and communities over time.

In practice, the Central Electricity Authority's 2023 review recorded free agricultural electricity in states and Union territories including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Puducherry, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. It additionally recorded fixed-rate agricultural electricity arrangements in states including Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. What are the subsidy's two ledgers?

Meanwhile, the debate over agricultural electricity usually focuses on the financial side: subsidies paid by governments and losses borne by power distribution firms.

There is another, less visible cost: the environmental cost. The financial cost of using groundwater does not reflect the damage caused by its overuse. These environmental costs are often not included in the overall financial accounts.

Notably, the financial cost alone is substantial. India's states spent regarding ₹1.89 lakh crore on power subsidies in 2024-25, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General's review of state finances. The main uses were backing for power distribution businesses and cheaper electricity for farmers and households.

Rajasthan had the highest state-level energy subsidy spending, followed by Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Separately, official Central Electricity Authority data put annual electricity consumption by agriculture at regarding 2, 43, 250 gigawatt-hours in 2022-23.

As water tables drop, farmers may have to deepen their borewells, employ larger pumps and consume more electricity to lift the same amount of water. Well yields can fall, and equipment costs can rise. Communities additionally become more vulnerable to drought. Has mechanisation created the challenge worse?

Taken together, the developments around explained: India' s ground-water crisis has an electricity problem point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.