Groundwater fell in 554 of Telangana’s 621 mandals over the past year, according to the state Ground Water Department’s October report. The average water level is now 7.77 metres below ground, about two metres deeper than a year ago. The area where water lies more than 20 metres down has grown more than fourfold. A failed monsoon is the immediate cause, and Hyderabad is among the hardest hit.
In the same week that Cyclone Murasu dumped more than 230 mm of rain on parts of Bhadradri Kothagudem and Khammam, Telangana’s own measurements showed how little water the rest of the state has stored underground.
The Telangana Ground Water Department’s October report, published by Telangana Today early on 5 November, finds that groundwater levels have fallen in 554 of the state’s 621 mandals compared with October last year, nearly 89%. The statewide average depth to water now stands at 7.77 metres below ground level (bgl), about 2 metres deeper than a year earlier.
The sharpest change is in the deepest category. The area of the state where water lies more than 20 metres down has grown from 478 sq km, the October average for 2016–2025, to 2,040 sq km. That is more than fourfold.
How groundwater is measured
Groundwater levels are recorded in observation wells and piezometers, narrow monitoring boreholes spread across a state’s mandals and read at regular intervals. The key measurement is “depth to water”: how far below the surface a well first meets water. A larger number means a lower water table. Readings taken in October, just after the monsoon, are especially important because they should show the year’s recharge at its peak. When October levels are lower than usual, the state goes into the dry season with less in reserve.
A monsoon that did not deliver
The immediate cause is rainfall. Between 1 June and 31 October, Telangana received 628 mm against a normal of 831 mm, a deficit of 24%. Twenty-two of the state’s 33 districts were deficient. The worst were in the south and west:
- Jogulamba Gadwal: −50%
- Narayanpet: −44%
- Nagarkurnool: −42%
- Nalgonda: −42%
The districts with the steepest year-on-year falls in groundwater were Suryapet (6.05 m), Vikarabad (5.39 m), Narayanpet (5.25 m), Mahabubnagar (5.01 m) and Medchal-Malkajgiri (4.99 m). The deepest average levels were around Hyderabad: Medchal-Malkajgiri at 12.80 m, Medak 12.44 m, Rangareddy 11.90 m, Vikarabad 11.87 m and Sangareddy 11.76 m.
The figures are consistent with the government’s own drought declaration. An order dated 24 October and made public on 27 October declared 365 mandals in 31 districts drought-affected, 111 of them severely.
Hyderabad’s double squeeze
Hyderabad district’s average water level is 10.62 metres bgl, against 6.12 metres a year ago, a fall of 4.5 metres, with rainfall 34% below normal. City-level readings from the department, reported separately on 4 November, put the average at 11.10 metres. Those readings range from 1.20 m at Aliabad to 35.74 m at Greenlands in Ameerpet, with Golconda showing a fall of more than 25 m. The report also contains a figure of 7.17 m for “Greater Hyderabad” that does not match the district numbers. NSH has not been able to reconcile it and does not rely on it.
The fall in groundwater comes on top of stress in surface water. In late October the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) declared a water emergency and cut supply in major areas to once every three days. On 4 November Singur reservoir held just 2.60 TMC ft of its 29.91 TMC ft capacity, and the board plans to draw it down to dead storage, 0.87 TMC ft, by December. Environmentalists warn that this could harm the Manjeera Wildlife Sanctuary downstream, home to about 300 bird species and a population of mugger crocodiles.
When piped supply falls, households and businesses turn to borewells and private tankers, which draw on the same aquifers that are already falling.
Why Telangana’s aquifers react so quickly
Most of Telangana sits on the hard crystalline rocks of the Deccan plateau, chiefly granites and gneisses, with basalt in parts. Unlike the deep alluvial aquifers of the Indo-Gangetic plain, these rocks hold water only in a thin weathered layer near the surface and in fractures below it. They store relatively little and refill mainly from each year’s rain. A good monsoon can raise levels quickly; a poor one, combined with heavy pumping, lowers them just as quickly.
That explains an apparent paradox in the national data. In the Central Ground Water Board’s 2025 assessment, Telangana’s “stage of extraction”, the share of annual recharge that is pumped out, was 46.69%, well below the national figure of 60.63%. On an annual average, the state is not over-pumping. But averages hide years like this one, when recharge collapses while demand for irrigation and drinking water does not.
The cyclone does not change the picture much. Murasu’s rain fell mainly on the eastern districts of Khammam and Bhadradri Kothagudem, over a day or two, and much of it ran off rather than soaking in. Several of those districts, such as Suryapet, are themselves among the steepest decliners. A storm on the eastern edge of the state does little for Gadwal or Vikarabad.
What can be done
Telangana has invested heavily in surface-water schemes and in restoring its traditional irrigation tanks, which also recharge groundwater. On 5 November the Centre cleared five Telangana urban projects worth ₹3,892 crore, led by Phase II and III of the Godavari drinking-water scheme for Hyderabad. These are long-term measures. The coming months need short-term ones:
- Rabi crops: advice to farmers to avoid water-intensive crops this season
- Borewell drilling: enforcement of limits in critical mandals
- Hyderabad supply: reuse of treated wastewater, already begun with “green water” tankers
- Monitoring: publication of monthly well data so that districts can act before wells fail
