A dropping battle in opposition to the advancing desert

On the finish of December 2024, solely 63 per cent of the entire storage capability of the dam was full.

The Pong Dam, which is one other main reservoir, had even much less water at simply 50 per cent of its capability. Hovering round 1,343 toes on the finish of 2024, the water stage at Pong was apparently 18 toes decrease than in 2023. The much less the water within the dams, the better the exploitation of groundwater for agriculture and home functions.

A joint satellite tv for pc survey by the Punjab Soil Conservation and Central Floor Water Degree Board revealed that if the state continued to use floor water on the present price, solely 5 per cent of the world would have any groundwater left within the subsequent 18 years.

All groundwater sources are utterly exhausted. The looming consuming water disaster can be exacerbated by the land turning quickly into sand. A analysis paper by ISRO reveals that the Thar desert is spreading out of Rajasthan and into a number of neighbouring states.

In 1996, the Thar coated an space of 1,96,150 sq. km. This has now expanded to 2, 81,100 sq. km. Of the entire 328.73 million acres of land in India, 105.19 million acres of land falls inside the Thar desert. With 82.18 million hectares of extra land turning into desert, barrenness has already set in.

In Bhatinda, Mansa, Moga, Ferozepur, Muktsar and Faridkot, radioactive components within the soil are reported to have crossed acceptable limits: this is without doubt one of the telltale indicators of an advancing desert. To be truthful, authorities businesses try to make folks conscious of the water disaster arising largely because of paddy cultivation, sadly with restricted success.