The top five states in terms of number of water bodies are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam which possess around 63 per cent of the total water bodies in the country, said the first-ever census of water bodies across the nation conducted by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.

A total of 24,24,540 water bodies have been enumerated in India, out of which 97.1 per cent (23,55,055) are in rural areas and only 2.9 per cent (69,485) are in urban areas, the census said.

The census provides a comprehensive inventory of India’s water resources, including natural and man-made water bodies like ponds, tanks, lakes, and more, and to collect data on the encroachment of water bodies.

The census also highlighted disparities between rural and urban areas and varying levels of encroachment and revealed crucial insights into the country’s water resources.

Top five states in terms of number of water bodies in urban areas are West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura, whereas in rural areas, top five states are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam, said the key findings of the census.

The census further said that 59.5 per cent of water bodies are ponds, followed by tanks (15.7 per cent), reservoirs (12.1 per cent), Water conservation schemes/percolation tanks/check dams (9.3 per cent), lakes (0.9 per cent) and others (2.5 per cent).

The census said 55.2 per cent of water bodies are owned by private entities whereas 44.8 per cent of water bodies are in the domain of public ownership. The census was launched under the centrally sponsored scheme, “Irrigation Census” in convergence with the 6th Minor Irrigation Census in order to have a comprehensive national database of all water bodies.

The information on all important aspects of the water bodies including their type, condition, status of encroachments, use, storage capacity, status of filling up of storage, etc was collected.

It covered all the water bodies located in rural as well as urban areas that are in-use or not in-use. The census also took into account all types of uses of water bodies like irrigation, industry, pisciculture, domestic/ drinking, recreation, ground water recharge etc.

The census has been successfully completed and the All India and state-wise reports have been published.