Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
recharging the groundwater aquifers that are over-exploited. (Refer to
Annexure 1)
FOURTH KNOT – FOUR-FOLD INCREASE IN OUR POPULATION
Within 75 years, our population will have increased nearly fourfold
from 361 million in 1951 to 1394 million in 2025. That is an enormous
increase in water demand in a very short span of time. Although India
occupies an area of only 3.29 million km 2 , forming 2.4% of the world’s
land area, it supports over 15% of the world’s population. 47 In other words,
India supports about 1/6th of the world population while comprising of
1/50th of the world’s land and 1/25th of the world’s water resources. 48
Narayan Hegde in his paper describes this cycle of exponential increase in
water demand:
“The most serious concern is the growing population which is likely to
increase to 1.66 billion by 2050. With the increasing population, the annual
food requirement in the country will exceed 250 million tons. The total demand
for grains will increase to 375 million tons including grain for feeding livestock.
With the growth in the National GDP, at 6.8% per annum, during the period
from 2000 to 2025 and 6.0% per annum, during the years 2025 to 2050, the
per capita income is bound to increase by 5.5% per annum. This will increase the
demand for food. While the per capita consumption of cereals will decrease by
9%, 47% and 60%, with respect to rice, coarse cereals and maize, the per capita
consumption of sugar, fruits and vegetables will increase by 32%, 65% and 78%
respectively, during the period from 2000 to 2050. The requirement of water for
livestock will rise from 2.3 billion m 3 in 2000 to 2.8 billion m 3 in 2025 and 3.2
billion m 3 in 2050.” 49
All the points mentioned by Narayan Hegde in his paper about
population also account for the drastic changes in India’s land use
pattern. From 1950 to 2000, the total area under agriculture has increased,
whereas the wasteland, other uncultivated land and non-cultivated land
and barren lands have reduced. Wastelands have reduced from 8% to 4.5%,
other uncultivated land has reduced from 17% to 9.2%, barren land has
reduced from 13.4% to 6.2%; and gross cropped area has increased from
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