Vanishing Reserves: Kashmir loses nearly 60–65% of its groundwater between 2020-2025
Snowless winters, prolonged dry spells & unchecked bore-well extraction push Valley’s underground lifeline to the brink
Our Special Correspondent
Srinagar: Kashmir’s water crisis is no longer just visible on the surface. Between 2020 and 2025, the Valley has lost an estimated 60–65 per cent of its extractable groundwater, according to government reports and hydrological assessments.
What was once an unseen safety net against drought and climate variability is rapidly disappearing beneath the soil. Experts point to a combination of climatic stress and human pressure.
Snowless winters, prolonged dry spells and repeated rainfall deficits — in some years reaching up to 85 per cent below normal — have sharply reduced natural aquifer recharge. At the same time, increasing reliance on groundwater has intensified extraction, creating a perfect storm of depletion.
“This is not just a seasonal shortage. It is a structural crisis,” says a hydrologist at the University of Kashmir. “Groundwater recharge relies heavily on snow-fed streams. When snowfall fails for consecutive years, aquifers cannot recover, and heavy extraction accelerates the decline.”
Data available with this newspaper suggests that Budgam district has recorded nearly 88 per cent loss of groundwater reserves in the past five years while as Kupwara has registered over 80 per cent decline.
“Baramulla and parts of south Kashmir have logged approximately 70 per cent reduction,” the data states. The data further states that monitoring wells indicate water tables falling by 0.5 to 3 metres in many areas, particularly in karewa belts, orchards, and urban fringes.
Shallow wells that historically supplied villages now run dry by early summer, forcing deeper drilling and increased reliance on tanker water. As rivers, streams, and springs shrink, groundwater has become the primary lifeline for drinking, domestic use, and irrigation.
Borewells have proliferated across villages, towns, and orchards — often drilled without regulation or scientific assessment. What was once a backup source is now essential for daily life? The decline is already affecting livelihoods—farmers face rising pumping costs and unreliable irrigation for orchards.
“Drinking water schemes dependent on bore-wells struggle during peak demand, particularly in summer. Villagers, often women and children, spend longer fetching water as local sources dry up,” the KU Hydrologist says.
The disappearance of groundwater is also linked to the drying of springs, with over 50 per cent of Kashmir’s springs now either seasonal or vanished, depriving villages of both water and cultural gathering spaces. Scientists note that rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns and erratic snowfall have compounded the problem. Winters that were once snow-laden now see reduced snowfall, leaving recharge zones dry and aquifers increasingly depleted. Environmentalists warn that without urgent measures, Kashmir could enter a phase of structural water scarcity, where shortages persist even in years of normal rainfall.
Experts recommend–mapping and monitoring aquifers across the Valley, regulating borewell drilling and enforcing extraction limits, protecting natural recharge zones, including wetlands and snow-fed streams and reviving traditional water-harvesting techniques, such as kunds and community-managed recharge systems
“Groundwater is Kashmir’s last buffer against climate shocks,” the Hydrologist at the KU adds, “If it collapses, there will be no fallback left. The time to act is now.”
