A water body in Telangana, amid a decline in the number of ponds, tanks, lakes and reservoirs recorded in the latest census. (DC Image)

Hyderabad: All it took was a mere eight years for Telangana to lose a whopping 10,371 water bodies, which according to the second all-India water bodies census, were 64,056 in 2017-18, with their number falling to 53,685 in 2025.

According to the Second Census of Water Bodies, of all the 53,685 water bodies in the state, as many as 53,244 are in rural parts of the state while a mere 441 are located in urban areas.

The report also says that ponds constitute the largest segment of the water bodies in Telangana accounting for 24,182 of them, down from 27,003 counted in the first census in 2017-18 making ponds, typically small structures, the most disappeared category of water bodies in Telangana.

Interestingly, the report says that Telangana has a total of 6,740 privately owned water bodies with individually held structures accounting for 5,122 of these, many of which are owned by farmers.

The census included various kinds of water bodies including ponds, tanks, lakes, reservoirs, and other small or other sized water bodies, and the second round of the study is part of the Government of India’s efforts to create a baseline data set for water bodies in different states.

The report also says that a majority of the water bodies – 30973 – are primarily used for irrigation.

Interestingly, the number of water bodies used for drinking water purposes, according to the census, is 136, while 254 are water bodies that are classified as for ‘industrial use’.

Though the number of water bodies was found to have declined between the first and the second census, Telangana also, within the last five years, revived 367 water bodies, of which 192 were tanks, 115 were ponds, 55 were water conservation schemes/percolation tanks/check-dams, 3 lakes and 2 reservoirs.

Report – Ponds -Tanks – Lakes – Reservoirs – WCS/PT/CD* – Others - Total

1st Census – 27003 – 16292 – 289 – 111 – 19239 – 1122 - 64056

2nd Census – 24182 – 17228 – 278 – 134 – 11687 – 176 – 53685

Water conservation structures, percolation tanks, check dams

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