As India stares at acute water crisis, high-risk states seem ill-prepared

The NITI report said, 21 Indian cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad, will run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting 100 million people

A recent NITI Aayog report on India’s water crisis, along with the performance of states in addressing the issue, presents a grim picture of the country’s hydrological scene.
 
At the bottom of the water index for 2016-17 are Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh (UP), and Haryana, which are major producers of paddy, wheat, along with a host of horticulture crops. Business Standard looks at the ground situation in the worst-hit states.
 

Uttar Pradesh
 
The groundwater crisis in UP is progressively worsening, owing to unplanned urbanisation, unbridled boring, rampant exploitation of groundwater and surface water by