Damage to Life Supporting Systems

With annual average rainfall varying from about 300 mm in Kachchh, 700 mm in Saurashtra and North Gujarat and about 2000 mm in South Gujarat, the distribution of water resources is naturally highly skewed in the State. The variability of the rainfall from year to year is also higher in areas with less than average rainfall. This means that these areas have number of years with less than average rainfall resulting in frequent droughts. Some 37 talukas of the State experience drought every two years, while 55 talukas experience below normal rainfall during 40-50% years.

The State can be broadly divided into two regions from the point of view of water availability. The areas north of river Mahi comprising North Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kachchh are water scarce while the areas south of Mahi comprising Central and South Gujarat are with water surplus.

The table below show region wise availability of surface and ground water potential in the state:

South Gujarat with about 15% of the State's population accounts for about 71% of total surface water resources of the State, while Kachchh, Saurashtra and North Gujarat together with 66% of the population account for only about 20% of the same. Groundwater, on the other hand, seems to be distributed more evenly but is not sufficient for the needs of the regions with poor surface water resources.

Details of mismatch between total water demand and water availability for water deficit Regions and water surplus regions are given in the charts below:

Fig-2 : Mismatch between demand for availability of water :2025

Details of sector-wise projected water demand upto 2025 for deficit and surplus regions are given in charts below:

Fig-3 : Projected Sector-wise demand and availability of water : 2001

Fig –4 : Projected Sector-wise demand and availability of water : 2025

An interesting feature of sectoral demand for water is that, over all, industrial requirements are insignificant as compared to the demands of other sectors. However, the absolute scarcity of water in north Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kachchh would preclude setting up of industries with large water requirements or potential to damage or pollute existing resources. The existing agricultural demand of 37219 million cubic meters is assumed to remain constant for the next 25 years and even then would account for over 60% of the total demand. In the water scarce regions of North Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kachchh, even the current water requirement of 26292 million cubic meters for irrigation, far exceeds the total availability of surface and groundwater of 15466 million cubic meters in these regions. Intensive agriculture, as it is practiced today, seems to be in conflict with water availability.

Water resources of the State, both surface and ground, have been continuously developed over the last 50 years, creating a large infrastructure catering to diverse human needs. Harnessing of surface waters is largely State driven with the government investment in large, medium and small irrigation schemes throughout the State. Groundwater development is largely driven by private investment of farmers in constructing wells, deep bore wells and pipelines for irrigation. This has led to the development of highly complex water markets, especially in North Gujarat.

Surface water utilization has been achieved mostly through construction of storage reservoirs at various locations and distributing these waters through large network of canals and pipelines to various users. Against the ultimate potential of 18 lakh hectares from major and 3.48 lakh hectares from medium and minor irrigation projects (excluding Narmada), 13.82 and 2.40 lakh hectares were already brought under irrigation by June 1999.

Details of basin-wise number of major, medium and minor irrigation schemes and the potential created and utilized till June 1995 are given in Annexure-XV. In all, 1128 major, medium and minor irrigation projects were completed in the State by year 1995 with an effective storage capacity of 15445 million cubic meters. This does not include the Sardar Sarovar Project on river Narmada with an effective storage of 5800 million cubic meters.

The actual supply from major, medium and minor irrigation projects is found to be 8510 million cubic meters only, indicating that the created potential is not being fully utilized. This is mainly due to under development of command areas and also due to transfer of water from many reservoirs for meeting domestic requirements of towns and cities.

As explained, management of surface irrigation has not been satisfactory and in many areas has led to degeneration of soils particularly in the command areas of three major projects - Ukai-Kakrapar, Mahi Right Bank Canal and Sabarmati - Dharoi command.

Ground water potential has been largely developed privately by the farmers for meeting irrigation needs. By 1997 there were some 450,000 electric pumpsets and about 200,000 diesel pumpsets operating to draw ground water. The ultimate potential of irrigating 20.21 lakh hectares from groundwater is already fully achieved by June 1999. Annexure-XVI gives details of basin-wise ground water balance for all regions of the State. It shows that ground water development in all the basins of North Gujarat is about 100% or more than 100%. As a result the water balance in all these areas is negative. Dhadhar river basin in Central Gujarat and Bhadar and South Saurashtra basins in Saurashtra show level of ground water development between 70 to 90 percent. This has led to the situation of over exploitation of ground water resources in many areas of the State.

The situation is particularly bad in many parts of North Gujarat, where piezometric (confined) aquifer level has been declining at an average rate of more than 5 meters every year. The depth of water table reached a low level of 123 meters in Sidhpur taluka in 1993 and in Prantij, groundwater is being pumped up from depths of 400 to 700 meters.

Fluoride affected talukas of Gujarat

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This declining ground water levels also have a serious implication on water quality as the water from deeper acquifers usually carries higher concentrations of minerals like fluoride, nitrates and dissolved solids. Annexure-XVII details district wise status of post monsoon ground water quality in 1997. Excessive fluoride in ground water is already a major problem in large parts of Saurashtra and North Gujarat. [Annexure–XVIII]

Similar is the case for nitrate concentrations. High level Total Disolved Salts (TDS) is found in Kachchh followed by districts bordering Kachchh like Jamnagar, Mehsana and Rajkot. In Mehsana almost half of the villages surveyed reported fluoride problems. This low quality of ground water has adverse impact on both agricultural productivity and community health.

The scarcity of surface and ground water in North Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kachchh is leading to a situation of increasing conflicts for water between different sectors. Water from most of the dams constructed for providing irrigation waters in Saurashtra and North Gujarat is often kept reserved for providing drinking water to the cities and towns. This has caused wide spread resentment in the rural areas, often resulting into conflicts. Similarly, although the water requirement of industries is relatively less, it often causes severe depletion of ground water at the local level in these regions with resultant conflicts.

The situation would only marginally improve even after the inter-basin transfer of surplus water from Narmada by construction of the Sardar Sarovar Project. The project would definitely go a long way in relieving the domestic and industrial requirements of water in Saurashtra, Kachchh and North Gujarat. But a glance at the map of the command area of the project clearly indicates that large areas of water deficit regions would not get any water from the project for irrigation. As many as 35 out of the 53 talukas having dark or over exploited status of ground water development are outside the command of the Narmada project. As a matter of fact, Narmada waters will serve only about 22% of the cultivable land in these 53 talukas where ground water is over exploited.

The above scenario clearly indicates that the problems of degradation of water resources in the form of fast declining quantity and quality of ground water in large parts of the State and water logging and salinity in the command areas of the irrigation projects shall become more severe with time. Other problems like pollution of ground and surface water, loss of wetlands, etc. are discussed in the relevant sectors. They shall also continue to contribute to these problems of declining quality and quantity of water resources in the State.

All the 15 islands of Gulf of Kacchh from Okha to Jodia including Okha, Sholi, Gujarat, Dona, Borlia, Saga, Goose and Pirotan are threatened with intense anthropogenic disturbances. Although direct extraction of corals have been banned for some time now, development of ports and other coastal infrastructure have led to severe sedimentation on many reefs. Effluent discharge from industries and coastal habitations has also led to severe stress on these ecosystems.

In the Gulf of Kachchh, all species of corals are threatended. While Acropra sp. is probably extinct, Paracyanthus indicus and many soft corals are endangered. The reef area itself has decreased by 9400 ha[about 43%] during 1975-1986.

Loss of Mangroves

The present spread of mangroves in the Kori creek and the Marine National Park constitute about 78% of the total mangrove cover in the State. However, this constitutes a mere fraction of the mangrove cover the State had earlier. Mangrove cover reduced by 96% in the Gulf of Khambhat during 1960-1993 and by 72.5% in the Gulf of Kachchh during 1975-1982. Together they represent the most serious of ecosystem damage in the State. Mangrove areas and mud flats are lost to salt pans and other industrial activities, the diversion being as much as 6382 ha during 1982-1995.

An equally serious issue is the loss of mangrove system diversity over the years with only one variety, Avicennia marina found growing naturally and being regenerated

 Marine and estuarine pollution

Industrial discharges into the Gulf of Kachchh [Motikhavdi, Sikka] with high degree of salinity, total dissolved solids and temperature are reported to be injurious, toxic to fish and detrimental to primary production of coral reefs. Each tonne of salt manufactured from sea water with salinity of 35 ppt is reported to produce bitten with 250 ppt of salinity and millions of liters of bitten is discharged into the marine environment from the salt producing areas. Discharges from desalination plants also will add to the problems.

Pipe line discharges, dumping from ships, riverine inputs, non point runoff, industrial and municipal waste, sewage sludge and dredged material containing heavy metals, toxic non metals, chlorinated hydrocarbons and petroleum hydrocarbons damage the estuarine environment. The assumption that these pollutants would be dispersed without accumulation and transfer into the food web and other commercial resources is not substantiated.

The hot spots in this regard, other than the Gulf of Kachchh, are the estuaries of the major south Gujarat rivers.

Management of the man made reservoirs, which impound the river waters, is done without meeting the environmental demands of the downstream areas, particularly the demand for wetlands and recharging of underground water resources.

The maximum sustainable yield of [MSY] for the marine fisheries off the coast of Gujrat is about 700000 tones. The recorded catch in 1997-98 was 702400 tones. This figure is based on landings and does not take into account either under reporting of landings or the catch of low economic value thrown overboard by trawlers. If these are accounted for at a conservative 15% it would appear that the marine fishery had crossed the sustainable level in 92-93 itself when the landings ….. about 6.10 lakh tones. Landings have remained between six and seven lakh tones thereafter though the number of mechanized boats increased from 9870 in 1992-1993 to 17084 by 1998-99. The year 1998-99 witnessed a drastic fall in the landings to 5.61 lakh tones from the previous year’s figure of 7.02 lakh tones. Drastic reduction in the per unit effort catch is more than obvious.

The relative share of commercially important varieties like white and black pomfrets, jumbo prawns, lobsters and Hilsa in marine landings has come down drastically in the last two decades and would have serious repercussions. [Annexure-XIX]

The annual target for the period 1997-2002 at 7.8 lakh tonnes continues to be above the maximum sustainable yield level and is oblivious of realities.

Deforestation

Gujarat's actual forest area of 12568 sq. km (1997) constitutes only 6.4% of its geographical area. This figure is well below the national average of 19.27%. Per capita forest area fell from 0.06 hectare in 1980 to 0.04 hectare in 1996. Between 1951 and 1975, about 2.5 million hectares of forests were denotified to make land available for agriculture. Most of this denotification occurred before 1961. In later years, 51913.3 hectares were cleared to make room for developmental projects. Unauthorized cultivation in forest areas has also been on the increase.

Exploitation of forests for timber and fuel wood has been responsible for fall in density of forest cover. Demand for timber is of the order of 13.8 million M³ per year against a supply of only 37000 M³ from forests. Despite the dwindling supply from forests, the number of sawmills is on the increase going up from 1643 in 1977 to 4079 in 1996. Illegal procurement from forests, to meet, at least a part of the demand, cannot be ruled out.

A huge gap exists in the demand-supply position of fuel wood. Recorded extraction of fuel wood from forests has been showing a steep fall from the annual average of 2,67,000 metric tones during 1960-65 to a mere 26,000 metric tones during 1990-95. The demand has, however, reached an astronomical 10.6 million tones (1995). An estimated 6 million tones of this demand is probably met by fuel wood plantations raised on private farms, wastelands and imports from other states. Illegal felling in forests and protected areas could be a source of the remaining material.

Forests in Gujarat are rich in minor forest produce (non timber forest produce) like bamboo, mahuda flower and fruit, timru leaves [melanoxylon], honey, wax, medicinal plants and non-edible oilseeds like neem. Annual collection of such produce excepting wax and honey showed a precipitous fall of 77% between 1970 and 1996. This would point to their overexploitation and unscientific forest management. Increased consumption by forest dwellers and populations living on the periphery of forest areas could be another reason for overexploitation or minor forest produce.

Introduction of exotic species like Prosopis juliflora to control desertification in Kachchh, eucalyptus in the Panchhmahals for raising pulpwood, casuarina on the coast to act as a windbreaker and raising of teak and acacia plantations at the expense of fruit-bearing trees in Jessore Sloth-bear Sanctuary have all met with none too happy outcomes.

Decrease is pasture lands and fodder production

While livestock population recorded a raise of 29.87% during the period 1972-1992 to reach a figure of 196 million, area under permanent pastures and grasslands showed a decline of 13% over the period of 1975 to 1995. Grassland area reduced from 3.3 million in 1975 to 2.9 million hectares in 1995. Reserved ‘vidis' have shown a fall of 28% in gross collection over the years 1980-81 to 1995-96. Another category called 'unreserved vidis' suffered a decline in area of 16% over the same period.

The fall in availability of fodder from forestlands and 'vidis' has been somewhat made good by production from private landholdings. Privately cultivated area under fodder crops increased by 50% over the period 1975 to 1995. The total area under fodder crops was estimated to be a significant 12% of the total cropped area in 1995.

Reduction in wetland area

Many of the wetlands in Gujarat are of international significance as they provide wintering sites as well as resting places for migratory waterfowl from Russia and Central Asia. The Great Rann of Kachchh, wetlands of Kachchh peninsula, Little Rann, southern Gulf of Kachchh, Khijadia lakes in northern Saurashtra, wetlands of central and eastern Saurashtra, Nalsarovar lake and the reservoirs in Surendranagar district, Pareij and Kaneval reservoirs, Ajwa, Badhwan and Pavagadh lakes and the Gulf of Khambhat form an impressive list of wetlands in the state.

The wetlands, coastal and inland, are treasure houses of biodiversity. In recent times, however, urbanization, agricultural development, industrialization, mining activity, increased salinity and other biotic interference have affected them. The decrease in wetland area in Gujarat is a cause for concern as the area shrunk from 3.36 million hectares in 1971 to 2.72 million hectares in 1992. At this rate, the area may go down to 30% of its present extent in the next 30 years.

The shrinkage of wetland area has affected not only bird populations but also flow regimes of rivers like Ambika, Sabarmati, Mahi, Narmada, Kim, and Tapi. Because of this impact on river flows, salinity levels in the Gulf of Khambhat near Hazira recorded an increase.

Gujarat has 25 protected areas spread over 6902.41 sq km which constitute 8.6% of the State's geographical area. This is twice the national average of 4.3% of protected area coverage. [Annexure–XX]

Protected Areas of Gujarat

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The protected areas in Gujarat are unique in many respects. Among these areas are the habitats of the Asiatic Lion (Gir), the Wild Ass (Little Rann), the Great Indian Bustard (Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary), resident and migratory birds, amphibians, reptiles and threatened species of wildlife, both fauna and flora. The Nalsarovar lake is a living reminder of the inland sea that once covered the area. The Balaram Wildlife Sanctuary lying between the southern boundary of the Thar Desert and the semi arid region of north Gujarat acts as a barrier against the march of the desert into Gujarat mainland.

The protected areas suffer from fragmentation, diversion of area and a host of management problems.