Hyderabad : With El Niño raising concerns over rainfall stress, experts are warning that Telangana ’s drought vulnerability may be greater than groundwater extraction figures suggest, exposing a critical gap in how groundwater is interpreted under India’s drought assessment framework.
Despite drawing only 47% of its annual extractable groundwater, Telangana’s hard-rock aquifers store limited reserves and can deteriorate rapidly after a poor monsoon, making the state more vulnerable to prolonged rainfall deficits than the numbers alone indicate. India’s drought assessment framework, revised over the years and expanded in 2020, relies on multiple indicators including rainfall, soil moisture, vegetation, cropped area and hydrological parameters such as groundwater, reservoir levels and stream flows. It is therefore not based on rainfall alone, and groundwater forms a key component of the overall drought assessment.
Peninsular hard-rock aquifers found across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have limited storage capacity and can respond sharply even to a single year of poor rainfall, according to Ramanjaneyulu. “A relatively low groundwater extraction percentage may indicate lower pressure on resources, but it does not necessarily show how much water an aquifer can provide during a prolonged rainfall deficit,” agricultural economist Ravi Kanneganti said. – Combine satellite data, weather forecasts and field observations However, experts argue that groundwater indicators need to be interpreted differently in states such as Telangana, particularly when rainfall remains deficient for a prolonged period. The distinction becomes particularly significant during an El Niño year. Reduced rainfall leads to lower groundwater recharge, while continued agricultural pumping places additional pressure on available resources. In hard-rock regions, the impact of a weak monsoon can quickly surface through falling groundwater levels and declining borewell yields.