The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday ordered a complete ban on extraction of groundwater for industrial and commercial purposes along Ganga floodplains unless specific permission is given by the Central Groun-dwater Authority (CGWA).
The green body in its order said, “We direct that no person shall be permitted to extract groundwater for industrial and commercial purposes unless it has obtained permission from CGWA.” The CGWA should also regulate extraction of groundwater for agriculture and other purposes as per State policy, the order stated.
“The permission shall be granted subject to such terms and conditions as may be necessary for the purpose of preventing and controlling pollution on the one hand and… ensuring measures for recharging of the groundwater,” said a Bench headed by NGT chairp-erson Justice Swatanter Kumar.
The green panel said excessive extraction of groundwater would have its adverse impacts on the environment and “health” of the river.
While quoting a groundwater study carried out by Directorate of Environment sponsored by the Environment Ministry, the tribunal further said, “The 659 blocks out of 820 blocks in UP were affected by groundwater level decline while 179 blocks in 43 districts are categorised as “critical/over exploited.”
It noted that all the prominent urban centres like Kanpur, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Noida, Agra, lucknow and Varanasi are severely affected with depletion of ground water level.
Referring to the submissions by IIT professors, the tribunal said one of the main reasons for high pollution of the River Ganga was excessive extraction of groundwater at Haridwar downstream.
“Nearly 80 per cent of the water was being extracted in different forms. The high water extraction affects the recharge of the groundwater,” the bench noted. The directions were passed on a 1985 PIl of noted environment activist MC Mehta for cleaning and rejuvenation of the River Ganga.