Ministry of Jal Shakti launched the first census of water bodies in convergence with the sixth minor irrigation census (reference year 2017-18), under the centrally sponsored scheme – “Irrigation Census”. The objective of the census of water bodies is to develop a national database for all water bodies by collecting information on all important aspects of the subject including their size, condition, status of encroachments, use, storage capacity etc. In the first census of water bodies, a total of 24,24,540 water bodies were reported in the country out of which 23,55,055 water bodies are in Rural areas and 69,485 water bodies are in Urban areas. State-wise information on number of water bodies in rural and urban area as available from the first census of water bodies is given in the Annexure.

The lesser proportion of water bodies in the urban areas is quite obvious since the urban areas have undergone expansions and infrastructural development which might have caused depletion of water bodies. Water being a State subject, steps for augmentation, conservation and efficient management of water resources are primarily undertaken by respective State Governments. In order to supplement the efforts of the State Governments, Central Government provides technical and financial assistance to them through various schemes and programmes.

All natural or man-made units bounded on all sides with some or no masonry work used for storing water for irrigation or other purposes (e.g. industrial, pisciculture, domestic/drinking, recreation, religious, ground water recharge etc.) were treated as water bodies in the first census of water bodies. All such water bodies were enumerated in rural as well as urban areas as per the master data provided by the States/UTs at the time of launch of the census.

The first census of water bodies was conducted in convergence with the sixth Minor Irrigation census. As per usual practice, the census was conducted by the State/UT Governments through nodal department identified in each State /UT for this purpose. The primary work of collection of data was carried out by the enumerators who were either village level workers or village accountants or Lekhpals or Patwaries or any other official designated by the State/UT Government. The overall quality of field work was monitored by Block/District level/ State level officers.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Bishweswar Tudu in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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ANNEXURE

State-wise number of water bodies reported in the first Census of Water bodies

S. no.	States/UTs	No. of Water bodies
		Rural	Urban	Total
1	Andaman & Nicobar Islands	3497	31	3528
2	Andhra Pradesh	190263	514	190777
3	Arunachal Pradesh	893	100	993
4	Assam	170112	2380	172492
5	Bihar	43831	1962	45793
6	Chandigarh	23	165	188
7	Chhattisgarh	33519	481	34000
8	Delhi	849	44	893
9	Goa	1406	57	1463
10	Gujarat	53156	913	54069
11	Haryana	14898	0	14898
12	Himachal Pradesh	87364	653	88017
13	Jammu & Kashmir	9687	78	9765
14	Jharkhand	106176	1422	107598
15	Karnataka	26224	789	27013
16	Kerala	49725	6009	55734
17	Madhya Pradesh	81012	1631	82643
18	Maharashtra	96343	719	97062
19	Manipur	1369	289	1658
20	Meghalaya	12798	534	13332
21	Mizoram	1436	749	2185
22	Nagaland	1287	145	1432
23	Odisha	178054	3783	181837
24	Puducherry	1050	121	1171
25	Punjab	15831	181	16012
26	Rajasthan	16750	189	16939
27	Sikkim	122	12	134
28	Tamil Nadu	99414	7543	106957
29	Telangana	63063	992	64055
30	Tripura	32140	4099	36239
31	Uttarakhand	2970	126	3096
32	Uttar Pradesh	240139	4948	245087
33	West Bengal	719654	27826	747480
TOTAL		2355055	69485	2424540

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