First ever census on Water Bodies in India

Tags: National News

For the first time in the country's history, the Ministry of Jal Shaktirecently released the first census report of water bodies, providing important insights into the country's water resources.

An overview of the news

• The census provides a comprehensive list of India's water resources, which includes natural and man-made water bodies such as ponds, tanks, lakes, etc.

• It has collected data on encroachment of water bodies.

• The census also highlighted disparities between rural and urban areas and different levels of encroachment and revealed important insights into the country's water resources.

Major findings of the census

• 24,24,540 water bodies have been enumerated in the country, out of which 97.1% (23,55,055) are in rural areas and only 2.9% (69,485) are in urban areas.

• Top 05 States in terms of number of water bodies - West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam which constitute around 63% of the total water bodies in the country.

• Top 05 States in terms of number of water bodies in urban areas- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura. 

• Top 05 States in terms of number of water bodies in rural areas - West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam.

• 59.5% of water bodies are ponds, followed bytanks (15.7%), reservoirs (12.1%), Water conservation schemes/percolation tanks/check dams (9.3%), lakes (0.9%) and others (2.5%).

• 55.2% of water bodies are owned by private entities whereas 44.8% of water bodies are in the domain of public ownership.

• Top 05 States which lead in the private owned water bodies - West Bengal, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand.

• Top 05 States wherein major use of water bodies is in pisciculture - West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh;

• Top 05 States wherein major use of water bodies is in irrigation - Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Gujarat.

• 78% water bodies are man-made water bodies whereas 22% are natural water bodies.

• 1.6% (38,496) water bodies out of all the enumerated water bodies are reported to be encroached out of which 95.4% are in rural areas and remaining 4.6% in urban areas.