The Ministry of Jal Shakti has put a new digital tool in the hands of planners, panchayats and field officials working on India’s groundwater crisis. Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil on 28 October launched Punah Bharan, a mobile application and companion web portal designed to make groundwater recharge planning more scientific and location-specific.
The platform has been developed by the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) in collaboration with the National Water Mission (NWM) under the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Recharge zones within a 3 km radius
Using the mobile app, a user can identify potential artificial recharge zones within a radius of up to 3 km of their location and explore which recharge structures are best suited to local conditions. The intent is to move recharge work away from guesswork and towards decisions backed by spatial evidence.
The web portal goes a step further, offering village-level Artificial Recharge Structure (ARS) zonation maps along with GIS tools and thematic map layers that planners can use to assess sites and design targeted interventions.
Built on geospatial data
Punah Bharan draws on multiple geospatial datasets, including rainfall, groundwater levels, groundwater yield, slope and drainage. Combining these layers helps users understand the recharge potential of an area and choose interventions that match its physical and hydrological characteristics.
Why it matters for governance
Groundwater underpins drinking water supply, irrigation and a large share of rural livelihoods, and recharge structures are built every year through convergence programmes at the district and gram panchayat level. A common, map-based decision tool gives these agencies a shared evidence base for where to invest, and could help reduce poorly sited structures that deliver little recharge.
The launch adds to a growing set of geospatial governance platforms built with BISAG-N, and fits the Jal Shakti ministry’s broader push to bring data-driven planning to water conservation. How widely it is adopted by states, districts and panchayats, and whether it is linked to works planned under existing water conservation campaigns, will determine its real impact on the ground.
Source: Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Jal Shakti (28 October 2026).