Irrigation

Story hook

In 1909, Sir Arthur Cotton died in his English cottage, still bitter that the British Crown had refused to build a canal network for India "fit for the 20th century." Forty years earlier he had built the Godavari Anicut at Dowlaiswaram (1852) — a mile-long masonry barrage that converted 6.5 lakh hectares of the East Godavari delta into a year-round granary. Locals still call him "Cotton Dora" (Lord Cotton); his statue stands at Rajahmundry. Visvesvaraya in Mysore (1924, Krishnaraja Sagar on Cauvery) and Lala Hardev Sahai in Punjab (1880s, Upper Bari Doab Canal) extended the same logic across British India.

By independence (1947), India's net irrigated area stood at 22.6 million hectares (mha) — about 17% of net sown area. 76 years and 30+ five-year-plan dam programmes later, India has 75.9 mha of net irrigated area (2022-23) — close to 52% of net sown area — but the composition has flipped. Groundwater wells now irrigate 65% of net irrigated area; surface canals only 24%; tanks down to 2% from 18% in 1950-51. The green revolution succeeded by lowering the water table — and at a price India is now paying.

The NITU Aayog Composite Water Management Index (2018, 2024 update) ranked 600 million Indians as facing high-to-extreme water stress. 21 cities were projected to run out of groundwater by 2020 — Bengaluru came close; Chennai actually hit "Day Zero" in June 2019. The 2024-25 Punjab paddy season drew 130% of safe groundwater yield. The Cauvery dispute still smoulders. Yet the Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) mission has taken micro-irrigation from 5 mha (2014) to 17.1 mha (2024) — a quiet revolution in water productivity.

This file walks through the four irrigation systems (canal, tank, well, micro), the policy architecture (PMKSY, AIBP, PDMC), the groundwater crisis, and the inter-state water disputes that connect everything.

Why this matters for UPSC

UPSC Prelims has asked irrigation/water questions in every year since 2013 — typically 1-3 questions on schemes (PMKSY-AIBP-PDMC), groundwater (CGWA, Atal Bhujal Yojana), micro-irrigation penetration, or specific projects (Sardar Sarovar, Polavaram). Mains GS-I asked direct irrigation questions in 2014, 2016, 2019, 2022. GS-III rural development and agriculture papers regularly test water-management policy. The topic also bridges GS-II federalism (Article 262, Inter-State River Water Disputes Act 1956).