Which Indian state has the highest percentage of its cultivated area under irrigation?

Punjab has the highest irrigation intensity in India, with almost all of its cultivated area (well over 95 per cent) under assured irrigation. Haryana comes next, also with a very high share.

Why Punjab is so highly irrigated:

• It lies in the fertile Indo-Gangetic plain, formed by the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers.
• It has a dense network of canals, such as the Bhakra canal system and the Sirhind canal, which draw water from these rivers.

It has a very large number of tubewells. Groundwater, pumped with cheap or free electricity for farms, now supplies a major share of the irrigation.

The rice-wheat cropping system followed in the state needs a lot of water.

The state government and farmers invested heavily in irrigation from the 1960s onward.

Problems caused by intensive irrigation:

• Falling groundwater tables: in many districts of Punjab, the water table has dropped sharply, and many blocks are classified as over-exploited.
• Waterlogging and salinity in some canal-irrigated areas.
• Over-use of fertilisers and declining soil health.
• Experts recommend crop diversification (for example, maize, pulses and oilseeds instead of paddy), direct seeding of rice and micro-irrigation to save water.

Irrigation in India in general:

• About half of India's cultivated area is irrigated.
• The main sources are wells and tubewells (the largest share), followed by canals and tanks.
• Tank irrigation is common in the peninsular states, where hard rock limits groundwater, such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana.
• States with low irrigation shares include those in the north-east, such as Mizoram, and states with hilly or rocky terrain, such as Maharashtra (where a large part of the farm land is rain-fed).

Why not the other options?

• ✗Haryana is a close second, with a similar canal and tubewell network.
• ✗Maharashtra has a low share of irrigated land despite having many dams, because much of it is a plateau with hard rock.
• ✗Mizoram has one of the lowest irrigation shares in India.