Managing Groundwater Across the Diverse Central Indian Drylands

India has a large groundwater footprint. Not only is it the largest groundwater socio-economy in the world, but it is also increasingly facing the paradox of high groundwater dependency and severe water stress due to aquifer depletion and contamination in many areas. The push for accelerated groundwater development for large parts of the Central Indian Tribal Belt, especially in 112 blocks across the region, is based on gross, regional groundwater assessments. These assessments indicate that groundwater extraction in these areas is limited, thereby inferring that there are stocks of groundwater resources that can be pumped to increase irrigated agriculture in the region. More granular indicators show that there are gaps in the assessment and that there are groundwater exploitation evidences in the region. Moreover, the blanket implications of using solar energy to access groundwater from irrigation wells are likely to lead to differential drawdowns in different aquifers. A nuanced approach that integrates groundwater management by prioritizing uses from drinking water to protective kharif irrigation to mainstream rabi pumping to selected summer pumping is suggested apart from adopting a participatory, science-based approach of groundwater management and governance for the Central Indian Tribal Belt.