Data | The distribution and utilisation of water bodies in India Premium

The majority of water bodies serve as resources for fish farming

A government report released last week has thrown light on the number of water bodies in India and what they are used for. The document, which was released by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, is the first such census of water bodies in India. The census has identified 24,24,540 water bodies in India.

Water bodies in this census are defined as any natural or man-made structures used for storing water for various purposes, such as irrigation, industry, fish farming, domestic use, recreation, religious activities, and groundwater recharge. They are classified as tanks, reservoirs and ponds. A structure that collects water from melting ice, streams, springs, rain, or drainage from residential or other areas, or stores water diverted from a stream, nala, or river, is also considered a water body.

Chart 1| The chart shows the types of water bodies (in %) across India

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As shown in Chart 1 , ponds comprise 59.5% (1,442,993) of water bodies, followed by tanks at 15.7% (381,805), reservoirs at 12.1% (292,280), water conservation projects such as percolation tanks and check dams at 9.3% (226,217), lakes at 0.9% (22,361), and other types at 2.5% (58,884).

West Bengal boasts of the highest number of ponds and reservoirs; Andhra Pradesh the highest number of tanks; and Tamil Nadu the highest number of lakes (Map 2). Maharashtra leads in terms of water conservation initiatives. A mobile application designed for this task was used to capture pictures of the water bodies along with their latitude and longitude coordinates.

Map 2 | The map shows the location of the ponds, lakes, tanks, reservoirs and water conservation schemes. Each dot corresponds with approximately 500 such water bodies.