Impact of Climate Change on Groundwater Resource of India: A Geographical Appraisal

The inherent advantages of consistent temperature, widespread availability, decentralized access, limited vulnerability, outstanding natural quality, low extraction cost, and drought protection capacity as well as fluctuation in seasonal availability, result in monsoonal rainfall uses of groundwater in the domestic and agricultural sectors of India to be ever increasing. The rapid growth of groundwater-based irrigation systems in the past 50 years has multiplied groundwater extraction in India, resulting in its overexploitation. Recent study has revealed that climate change leads to the altered precipitation and evapotranspiration rate of the country, so it may be considered as tan additional major threat to this resource. Hence, understanding the behavior and dimensions of the groundwater regime under future climatic and other changes is significant in adopting an accurate water management strategy. This review presents an outline of the groundwater resource base of India and its susceptibility to ongoing and future trends of changes in climatic variables.