AHMEDABAD: Gujarat's groundwater is coming under increasing stress, with extraction rising 3.4% in a year while natural recharge has remained almost unchanged, according to the latest "Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India, 2025" report by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
The state's groundwater extraction stage increased from 54.21% in 2024 to 55.95% in 2025, while 25 assessment units have been classified as Over Exploited and 14 deteriorated into worse categories within a year.
The report shows that Gujarat extracted 14.33 billion cubic metres (bcm) of groundwater in 2025 against an annual extractable resource of 25.61 bcm. In comparison, extraction stood at 13.86 bcm in 2024, marking a year on year increase of 3.4%.
However, annual recharge remained almost unchanged at 27.58 bcm, highlighting a widening gap between demand and replenishment.
Agriculture continues to dominate groundwater use in Gujarat. Of the state's 14.33 bcm of groundwater extracted in 2025, 13.25 bcm was used for irrigation, accounting for 92.5% of the total.
Domestic use stood at 0.88 bcm, while industrial extraction was only 0.20 bcm, according to the Central Ground Water Board's (CGWB) 2025 assessment.
The figures underline the state's heavy dependence on groundwater for farming, leaving extraction patterns closely tied to rainfall conditions and irrigation demand.
While the state-level figures suggest moderate stress, the situation at the local level is far more severe. Of the 252 assessment units, only 181 are classified as Safe.
The remaining units show varying levels of stress, with 31 classified as Semi Critical, three as Critical and 25 as Over Exploited. An additional 12 units are saline, leaving nearly one fourth of Gujarat's groundwater systems under stress or degradation.
North Gujarat remains the worst affected region. Banaskantha has crossed the sustainability threshold with an extraction stage of 121.47%, meaning groundwater use exceeds natural recharge.
Eight of its 14 assessment units are Over Exploited, including Dantiwada, Deesa, Palanpur and Tharad. Patan and Mahesana also continue to face severe stress, with extraction stages of 118.57% and 108.74%, respectively, and multiple Over Exploited and Critical units.
Urban groundwater stress is also evident in Gujarat's major urban centres, with Gandhinagar emerging as a particularly severe hotspot.
The CGWB's 2025 assessment places Gandhinagar's stage of groundwater extraction at 111.28%, meaning annual extraction exceeded its annual extractable groundwater resource by 11.28%.
Ahmedabad recorded a district wide extraction stage of 72.74% in 2025, while the Ahmedabad Urban assessment unit was classified as Critical at 93.76% in the latest assessment unit data available from CGWB 2023.
Saurashtra and central Gujarat are also witnessing uneven groundwater stress. In Rajkot, half of the assessment units are already Over Exploited despite a moderate district average.
Districts such as Sabarkantha, Vadodara, Amreli, Kheda and Tapi also show growing pockets of Semi Critical and Critical conditions, indicating that groundwater stress is spreading beyond traditional hotspots.
A worrying trend is the rapid deterioration of several assessment units within a single year. Fourteen units slipped into worse categories between 2024 and 2025.
Ahmedabad Urban, Patan, Banaskantha Palanpur and Mahesana all moved into the Over Exploited category. Several others, including Sabarkantha Vadali and Kheda Mehmedabad, shifted from Safe to stressed categories.
At the same time, the report recorded improvements in 11 assessment units, including Ahmedabad Mandal, Bavla, and parts of Vadodara and Kachchh, indicating that groundwater conditions are not uniformly declining. However, these improvements were insufficient to offset the broader trend of rising extraction pressure.
The report also highlights Gujarat's dependence on monsoon rainfall, which contributes more than 70% of annual groundwater recharge. With nearly 60% of the state under hard rock formations, groundwater storage is naturally limited and highly sensitive to rainfall variability. This makes long term sustainability more challenging, particularly in drought prone regions.
Apart from quantity related stress, Gujarat also faces groundwater quality issues. Twelve assessment units across districts such as Kachchh, Banaskantha, Patan, Morbi and Ahmedabad are affected by salinity, limiting the usability of available groundwater resources.
Overall, the 2025 assessment presents a cautionary picture. While Gujarat has not reached a statewide crisis, the steady rise in groundwater extraction, coupled with stagnant recharge and increasing localised overexploitation, signals mounting pressure on the state's groundwater system.
The report underscores that the challenge is no longer one of uniform depletion but of a patchwork of severely stressed aquifers requiring urgent and targeted management.
